Page 5336 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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The details we know so far of the agreement mean that these rates of pay will be, with CPI increases, the rates awarded by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in May 2009. The rates will be phased in over six years, with those receiving the smallest increases getting them in a shorter time period.
In the first part of 2012, the federal government will fund an industry assistance package to help employers and employees understand the new arrangements. All staff will receive a pay increase from Fair Work Australia on 1 July 2012. Following this pay increase, workers will translate the new modern award classification structure and then be equal pay ready. All staff will then receive the first additional increase arising from being equal pay ready on 1 December 2012. In addition, all staff will receive a further increase on 1 July each year from the national wage review.
I understand that a number of parties are still opposed to the claim for equal pay and therefore a final decision in the case must be made by Fair Work Australia. The final dates of hearing are set for 28 November and 7 and 8 December of this year.
There is much work to be done in the months and years ahead, including how to ensure that adequate funding is delivered in a way which develops and supports quality services for all people and their communities that do rely on the community sector.
We now await the final decision from Fair Work Australia and hope that the right decision is reached for all of these workers, not only in our own community here in the ACT but right across Australia. I trust that the ACT government will participate to ensure a fairer wage is paid to our community sector workers, a wage that better reflects the vital work they do and the value we should all be placing on their work.
Father John Eddy SJ
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.45): Mr Speaker, 6 November saw the death of Father John Eddy SJ at Clare Holland House after a long battle with cancer. Father Eddy would be known to many in Canberra as a long-time historian at the Australian National University and priest to the people of Canberra. He was the founder of the Australian Institute for Jesuit Studies and the son of William Eddy and Mary Crosse and the brother of Margot Traill. Father Eddy lived for more than 40 years at the Jesuit residence in Yarralumla and was highly regarded as a teacher both in Australia and internationally and for his priestly ministry and his role as a human rights advocate.
Father Eddy died in his 62nd year as a Jesuit and his 49th year of priesthood. He was educated at St Louis school, Xavier college, Campion college, the University of Melbourne, and received a DPhil from Oxford on the subject of colonial government in Australia in the 19th century. Father Eddy was a fellow in history at the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University and he was a director of the Georgetown Centre for Australian and New Zealand Studies. The chief executive of the Georgetown Centre for Australian and New Zealand Studies wrote on Father Eddy’s death:
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