Page 3978 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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accredited again. The first one happened when I was around. I handed out some chocolates on the day to all the staff. I went over to do the thing that politicians and ministers do; you just wander around and thank everybody. The bloody chocolates were made somewhere else; they were not made in Australia. Gary Humphries, I think it was, picked me up on that. I thought: “You’re mean. I cannot get anything right.”
Abortion law reform has been talked about in the last couple of days. The establishment of a clinic in the ACT was a struggle and it was well received by women in the ACT. It was a pretty rough time for women who wanted a pregnancy termination before all this stuff was set up; 1,200 to 1,500 of them every year being forced to go interstate. We fixed that, between me and my colleagues. I want to acknowledge Helen Cross tonight because without Helen’s vote we would not have been able to decriminalise abortion. And Helen paid a price for that.
There was increased long service leave for building workers. I think they have the longest long service leave in Australia or thereabouts, building workers. Union Picnic Day has been further protected and I am sure it will be set in concrete one way or another.
The occupational health and safety laws are another advance that was made all of the time with this, and Labor has been on the job with occupational health and safety laws ever since we came here. I think it was the first piece of legislation that came into this place. The construction industry training levy was not as popular but it is paying dividends now because we are having skill shortages. Of course there was the portable long service leave for the cleaning industry.
A few other issues I had a bit of a go at include the containment of poker machines. I got into a bit of trouble with caucus over that but it is an important campaign, poker machines. I saw Michael Moore, who can be a bit of a nong when he sets his mind to it, had a bit of go in the City News about the ALP and poker machines and it is probably because of the Labor Party. Brendan Smyth had a bit of a go tonight, too. I think we have got such a tough regime here in the ACT probably because the ALP has clubs and is sensitive about the issue. We have got a very tough regime about poker machines in the ACT. There are no poker machines in the casino, and for good reason. None of us wanted to see it spread out of the not-for-profit area.
Look at what has happened in New South Wales and Victoria. I hear Tim Costello on the radio about it. I respect what Tim Costello does, but when he gets things sorted out in some of those other states he can come and whinge to us about what happens here. I think it is a bit over the top for him to complain about the ACT when other things go on that are much worse in other places.
Other matters include the TotalCare workers, the forestry workers and the Williamsdale Quarry mess, the public sector job cuts under Chief Minister Carnell and John Howard, the public ownership of Actew, the follow-up to the hospital implosion, with improved OH&S and dangerous goods legislation, education, aid for East Timor, better reporting on the progress of Indigenous students. There was a report today as a result of something that was started when I think I introduced a motion when Bill was the education minister.
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