Page 3098 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014

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“(a) the present Federal Government inherited a legacy of high-cost and low productivity as a result of Labor’s industrial relations policies;

(b) the Fair Work Act Amendment Bill 2014 is a Commonwealth matter;

(c) the Coalition’s proposed changes were announced approximately four months prior to the Federal election, and do not go further;

(d) the amendment bill enacts a number of recommendations from the Fair Work Review Panel in its 2012 review commissioned by the now Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten; and

(e) on elements such as union workplace access, individual flexibility arrangements and removal of the ability to strike first and talk later, the Coalition is delivering on policy promises made by the Labor Party prior to the 2007 election, which Labor broke; and

(2) calls on the ACT Government to:

(a) deliver certainty for ACT businesses;

(b) cut red tape and reduce charges and taxes to encourage productivity and growth; and

This is an interesting motion from Ms Berry and is very much like the arts motion last week. It is all assertion, it is innuendo, it is misinformation, it is things that could happen. There is very little substance or fact in what the member has just said. But that is the tradition we now expect from Ms Berry. If you go back over all of her motions they are simply a longing for the good old days when the union movements were in the world and long may they reign.

But in a country where fewer than 13 per cent of the working population in the private sector are in unions you have to question the relevance of unions and then you have to question the bill that the former Labor government passed, which was to protect their union base. It was never about workers. It was never about workers’ rights. It was never about ensuring that workers were better off.

It is interesting to hear Ms Berry attack the federal government for taking money out of the pockets of ordinary workers in the ACT. There was no attack on Treasurer Barr, whose “triple your rates” campaign is really hurting families right at the coalface. The increase in charges that this government has brought in over their time in office is what is truly hurting the average worker in the ACT. Ms Berry perhaps should stand up in her own caucus room and say, “Let’s lift the burden off workers in the ACT,” and address things that she can fix in her caucus, in this place, instead of bringing on a motion about a bill that is not even in our jurisdiction.

But let us go to the motion. I love these motions from Ms Berry. Paragraph (4)(f) states:

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