Page 4948 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
that the government will get it right and that these organisations will not be out of pocket. I have taken on board the attitudes and concerns of the community sector and I have taken on board the in-principle support of ACTCOSS and the National Disability Service for the scheme and its aims. However, the clear message to me is that the sector is not yet ready to embrace and implement the scheme at no disadvantage to the sector.
There is anxiety and fear in the sector, and we will not support a scheme that creates that anxiety and fear. We will not support a scheme that creates anxiety and fear when these organisations’ key role is to provide services usually to Canberra’s most vulnerable people. The Canberra Liberals will not support this scheme until the Stanhope government addresses the concerns of the community sector; the Canberra Liberals will not support this scheme in isolation from a wider sector review; the Canberra Liberals will not vote to increase the costs of childcare to Canberra families.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (12.04): The ACT Greens will be supporting the Long Service Leave (Community Sector) Amendment Bill 2009, as this will mean a substantial improvement in the conditions of those working in the community sector.
The Greens have long been a strong advocate of those working in the community sector and understand acutely the vital services they provide. In fact, in the last sitting I moved a motion here in the Assembly to call on the government to commit to quarantining community organisations which provide assistance to people in poverty from the efficiency dividend measures in the 2010-11 budget. This motion was successful and this commitment will provide essential reassurance so that community organisations can effectively plan with a degree of certainty how they will assist people who seek their support and assistance into the next financial year.
The Greens understand that this bill is consistent with a key recommendation made by the ACT community sector task force in its 2006 report for the ACT government to legislate a mandatory portable long service leave scheme for the community sector. We also acknowledge that the government’s reasons for the development of this particular scheme is a recognition of the increasing demand placed on the community sector’s services and the impacts this has on its workforce.
The scheme will support community sector workers in a number of ways. It will protect the basic entitlement to long service leave for all community sector workers, even where this is accrued by service to multiple organisations, similar to government workers’ entitlements to long service leave even if accrued by service in multiple government agencies. From the community sector workers’ perspective, this scheme will provide them with a basic entitlement from which they have long been excluded. As a former community sector employee, let me say that it makes sense to me that the scheme will bring the sector one step closer to being a more attractive sector to be employed in. The introduction of a portable scheme will address the injustice and inequity the community sector workforce has experienced when compared to other sectors of the territory’s workforce. The proposed scheme is supported by unions, workers and many community sector employers and is recognised as a basic industrial relations provision.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video