Page 2711 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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clear the government’s expectations that the companies it purchases from are behaving ethically in their dealings with workers and indeed subcontractors.
It will simplify the procurement process and reduce duplication. This will not only ensure that workers’ rights are protected and improve job security; it will also create a level playing field for businesses. Too often over recent years we have seen evidence, both locally and nationally, of employers entering into sham contracting arrangements, exploiting visa workers and avoiding their industrial workers compensation and taxation obligations. Quite simply, these are not the sorts of employers to whom governments should be giving their business.
These practices are not only bad for workers; they also enable unscrupulous businesses to undercut those that are doing the right thing. Indeed, many of the complaints received about the behaviour of contractors come from other businesses. The secure local jobs package will promote job security, ensure that government contracts are awarded only to companies that meet the highest ethical and labour standards and create an efficient, clear and transparent governance regime. It is hard to see what the opposition could object to in that list.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.31): It is a pleasure to rise today to speak about the gaming and racing portfolio. I do note that the government has chosen since the election to bury the portfolio inside regulatory services. This has seen an outcome in the budget papers as well, through the gambling and racing policy function being split from the administrative side, with policy moving inside JACS and the administration being taken care of through Access Canberra.
Perhaps it is this split that has been the cause of the lack of leadership and direction from the minister in this space. We watched as the minister flip-flopped over a policy position regarding the greyhound industry, and there have been a number of thought bubbles in regard to our community clubs. It must be said, though, that one must feel for the minister at times. It can be hard to find a suitable policy position when the Chief Minister has barred you from consulting with the industry group that represents over 70 per cent of Canberra’s community clubs.
Mr Barr: We do not need to consult to work out what our policy is, Mark. We know that. We went to the election on it.
MR PARTON: Yes? We went to an election with a policy of barring the peak body? We have been constantly subjected to rants by those opposite about how they are the only viable option for Canberrans to support job growth and stability. What this Labor government fails to communicate to Canberrans is that this only fits in to the trendy “hipster Braddon” view of the world. It was not enough for the government to just remove the funding allocated to the greyhound industry in Canberra. When this government realised that the Greyhound Racing Club was made of tough stuff and was going to be viable and had the ability to run without funding from the government’s sale of ACTTAB, we saw yet another change in policy.
This government is so intent on destroying local jobs that it has gone to extreme lengths to ban the industry in the ACT. What has made this policy decision even more
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