Page 4749 - Week 11 - Thursday, 20 October 2011
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of the issues that have been raised in the Public Advocate’s report. My understanding is that they had a few working days to respond to a draft copy of the Public Advocate’s report but that there are still elements within that report that the directorate feel that they need to respond to and correct. We need to allow them the time to do that before we pass the judgements that have been made against them in this place this week.
MRS DUNNE: A supplementary question.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Chief Minister, why has the directorate been operating under placement policies and procedures that are seven years old and which do not reflect current practice? I would like you to reflect upon that both as the acting minister and as the former minister.
Mr Hargreaves: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, I believe that question has already been asked in the previous question time, almost verbatim.
Mrs Dunne: I do not believe it has.
MS GALLAGHER: Mr Speaker—
MR SPEAKER: Are you just going to take the question?
MS GALLAGHER: this issue will be covered fulsomely in the government’s response, once the government has all the information available to them, not just the Public Advocate’s report but also the advice from front-line staff and managers within that directorate, about the policies and procedures that they were operating under.
Industrial relations—security industry
MS BRESNAN: My question is to the Minister for Industrial Relations and is about the ACT security industry. Workers in the ACT security industry receive a lower wage for their work when compared to security workers in every other part of Australia. In a jurisdiction like the ACT, where a few security firms operate, it can be very hard to change working conditions. Minister, given that the ACT government is a significant purchaser of these low-wage security contracts, what consideration have you given to guaranteeing that the ACT government will only employ security firms which agree to pay wages in line with the Australian standard?
MS GALLAGHER: I have met with United Voice and a delegation of security industry workers in the last few months. The issue they raised with me was their priority around getting a portable long service leave scheme in place for their industry as they feel that they are, probably alongside retail, an industry that deserves to have portability as well. I think we briefly touched on this. They are covered by private sector awards or EBAs that are in place with United Voice.
The government, in terms of our own purchasing capacity, always makes sure—and it is a requirement—that contracts are funded to ensure that people are paid what they
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