Page 517 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018
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full-time employment and employment participation, supporting diverse workplaces, supporting training and addressing any potential barriers to career development.
A lot of work has gone into the model to deliver the Chief Minister’s commitment to a secure local jobs package, which is currently the subject of consultation. As I noted in this place last year, a working group was established with union representatives to work through the detail of a package that would meet our joint objectives around protecting workers’ rights, while being implementable from a legal perspective by acknowledging that there are limits to the ACT government’s power to legislate on industrial relations issues, and in terms of practicality and minimising red tape for businesses and organisations intending to tender for government work.
As I also said in this place last year, I spoke with the Master Builders Association and the Canberra Business Chamber about this process in my meetings with them and gave them an outline of our thinking in developing the package. I welcome their commitment to consider the information paper that is now out for consultation and look forward to their feedback.
Governments can and should be model purchasers. They should use their purchasing power to encourage best practice in industrial relations, upholding workers’ rights and protecting workers safety. This is a principle and a package I encourage every member of this Assembly to support. On this side of the chamber we make no apologies for standing up for workers’ rights, for standing up for fair pay, for standing up for safety. We make no apologies for standing up for Canberra’s workers. If only the Canberra Liberals could say the same.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (3.57): The Greens, as my colleague Mr Rattenbury indicated, will be supporting Ms Cody’s motion today. In addition to labour standards, however, the Greens are also concerned about a range of other important ethical priorities relevant to procurement, such as the presence of slavery and human trafficking in supply chains—my colleague Mr Rattenbury talked about that—Indigenous employment, procurement from disability-led organisations, social enterprises, and sustainability and climate change factors.
Of course, the Greens support the overall plan to improve procurement and tender processes, protect the rights of workers and ensure that the ACT government does not use contractors that do not meet the ACT’s employment standards. The government’s procurement policies cover ethical and sustainable procurement. The ACT’s sustainable procurement policy encourages agencies to consider “social responsibility and ethical practices” when undertaking impact assessments. It also expressly includes “labour conditions and human rights of workers” as considerations for “social procurement”, as well as a number of other human rights related issues, such as avoidance of bonded labour and supply chain awareness.
Certainly, it can be very hard to connect the dots between the various problems in the world and the things that we manufacture and consume. The Greens have consistently worked in parliaments around the world to raise these issues and to change the way that governments procure goods, services and works. The ACT policies seem
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