Page 1728 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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I am pleased, minister, you have said you will continue to work with CIT to ensure there is continued progress in implementing new work safety laws. I am pleased you will be receiving weekly reports. What I am not sure about is that it is within your capacity to deliver on these issues as you claim you will. I can assure you, minister, that I will be seeking regular confirmation from people that I talk to that things are improving for staff at the CIT, that staff are being treated with respect and that when they have a grievance it is being taken seriously and responded to appropriately.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens), by leave: I am pleased to see that progress has been made on this matter. It is obvious that there have been some ongoing issues at CIT and it is most unfortunate that it has taken some time to get some real progress in place. And I do note that the minister has used his power under the act to ensure that he gets weekly progress updates, to make sure that this process that has been put in place is going to be kept on track, because at the end of the day we do want to ensure that we have safe workplaces, for everyone to be able to thrive in their workplace and to be able to go to work not under the threat of being bullied, being harassed or being pushed out of their workplace.
But I do have to take some issue with Mr Doszpot. Yes, issues have been raised about bullying over some time and I can assure Mr Doszpot that he is not the only one who has taken up these issues and who takes these issues seriously. This is exactly what we have been doing and we continue to do that work. What is really quite interesting is that Mr Doszpot is pushing this line, yet when the Greens put forward legislation recently to add expert resources to the Work Safety Commissioner—expertise to look at bullying and harassment, extra resources that would not only have been able to follow up on complaints and investigations but do some proactive work and look at the systemic issues that we find in some of our institutions—what happened? Mr Doszpot and his party turned it down flat. They were not interested; they did not want to know about it. When we actually get to the solutions that can address some of these issues into the longer term, what happens? You do not support them; nor did the Labor Party, and I think that was an enormous—
Mr Doszpot: But that is okay? The government is okay.
MS HUNTER: No. That was an enormous—
Mr Doszpot: So you are not criticising them? It is our fault, as usual.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Doszpot, order! This is not a conversation. You can speak again if you want to seek leave.
MS HUNTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is an enormous disappointment that we did not get the support from both parties, but certainly we have been in there looking at how we can, I guess, add more resources and improve systems in our workplaces, whether it be the CIT or any of our directorates, to ensure that workplaces, as I said, are safe places for people to be in and so that they do not end up being the nightmares that obviously some people have experienced.
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