Page 1251 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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The High Court’s decision was greeted very favourably by, amongst others, the business community. Heather Ridout, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, said:
For national companies operating across state borders this will be a very important decision because they will have a consistent approach to their workplace regulation … across borders, so it does provide that clarity ...
Peter Anderson, from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted:
For our economy it means that the Commonwealth Parliament has sufficient constitutional powers not just to create a national industrial relations system but also to ensure that there is management of our national economy where law and regulation is needed.
It is worth reminding ourselves of that rather futile exercise in buying into that case.
Turning to my second item, in the remaining time I just want to place on record the value I experienced by visiting Singapore last week with the Actew Corporation, and I appreciated the opportunity extended by the Chief Minister on this occasion, despite the fact that we spend most of our lives firing rockets back and forth across this place and in the media.
The visit was informative. It strengthened my level of confidence in the systems in place in Singapore in terms of water treatment. We inspected a range of recycling plants as well as a major desalination plant. We saw facilities which had high standards in terms of public health and were constructed on a reasonably sound economic basis. Admittedly, they have vastly lower labour costs there. Mr Gentleman will be sorry to hear about that, but they would be obviously significant variables in this environment. I was impressed by their commitment to high standards of health, but they have been happy to embrace recycled water. They will be increasing their total supply of water from recycled sources up to 10 per cent within the next several years. Their primary use for recycled water is still for computer wafer production requirements. That requires water of an even more pure standard than that used for drinking purposes.
During the visit I was appreciative of having the assistance of someone with specialist qualifications in waste water—Ms Amanda Wenhlowskyj, who is a resident of Singapore but formerly worked for the EPA in Victoria—at no cost to the ACT taxpayer. I appreciated the agreement of Actew Corporation for her to be part of the delegation. She is preparing detailed notes for me to examine more thoroughly on the basis of all the meetings we held. It was productive and worth while and I was pleased with the opportunity to be part of it.
ACTION bus service
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (6.24): I rise tonight to talk about my concern re the safety of our bus interchanges, the safety of our buses and safety for ACTION staff and bus drivers in general. Mr Speaker, I want to bring to your attention that to my knowledge, as reported to me by members who work in the area, at least three bus drivers have
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