Page 1099 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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system is in place there are no fuel costs—those renewable energy systems will be highly cost competitive. I think that people will thank this current generation of leaders in the ACT for ensuring that we put those sorts of energy supplies in place that will provide this city with stable energy prices into the medium to long term.
There are a number of other matters in this motion. Each of them is in fact an entire debate and discussion in its own right. There has been some commentary from a range of members this morning. I simply note that many of the issues, such as disability services and the implementation of a needs-based approach to education funding, are the sort of matters I and the Greens have a great interest in. Certainly, as I said, many of them have been touched on in broad terms in the parliamentary agreement. On that basis I think that the matters Dr Bourke has raised today are important ones and I will be supporting the motion as it is presented today.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (11.33): I rise today to support Dr Bourke’s motion on the need to ensure that we continue to build on the achievements of the last 100 years through strong leadership and forward-looking policies. I wish to highlight this government’s strong track record in making Canberra a safe and desirable place to work.
Even though the powers of this Assembly are limited by our federal cousins in relation to workplace laws, I believe that we have a proud record of reform that makes the most of our capacity to make sure that working people in the ACT are able to work in a creative, productive, fulfilling and safe environment. There have been considerable achievements by this and previous governments to enhance our workplaces, but I only have time to touch on a few major achievements.
Workplace safety is the backbone of any progressive set of workplace laws. For more than 10 years now the ACT government has been committed to providing the best possible safety and workers compensation laws.
I know that since Labor came to office in 2001 we have strived to improve OHS laws and regulations in the territory. I believe in 2001 that the Chief Minister had carriage of the occupational health and safety laws and now, with national harmonisation of OHS and work health laws coming online, I know that the ACT has had a constructive role to play in making sure that these new national laws are of the highest standard.
Ensuring the safety of our workplaces also means making sure that Canberra’s working people are not exposed to dangerous substances such as asbestos and hazardous chemicals. In 2002 the then Stanhope government undertook a review of the Dangerous Goods Act and found that substantial work was needed to bring our laws up to scratch to offer the best protections we could to workers who might be exposed to dangerous substances. In 2004 the government introduced a completely rewritten Dangerous Substances Act. The act implemented nationally agreed standards on both dangerous goods and hazardous substances and had a specific focus on improving the handling and removing of dangerous substances like asbestos which had then only recently been banned nationally.
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