Page 104 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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All that being said, when I drafted this motion I also wanted to make sure that the Liberal members of the Assembly had something to think about and something to talk to. Last year when Mr Parton complained that motions from this side sometimes were too self-congratulatory of the government and lacked enough content, I took that to heart. I hope I have given him enough red meat today to find objectionable.
Just thanking workers without acknowledging the threats and challenges they face would be aloof and mean. A broken industrial relations system and economic management that has suppressed wage growth have meant that wage earners have been falling behind in the past few years. Fortunately, and to the extent that self-government allows, the Barr Labor government has been doing everything it can to improve the lives of working people in this city. This includes things like the secure local jobs package, which means that government work in the ACT will be done only under the highest labour standards.
When I talk to workers in the commonwealth public service and to their representative unions I hear the opposite. Outsourcing, diminishing your own workforce, hiring freezes and wage deflation do not make for a motivated, productive workforce—even if they are the Liberal way.
MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (10.15): I take this opportunity to join with Ms Cody and my Assembly colleagues in thanking all the hard-working men and women of the ACT. Whether they were working on the front lines of our emergency services, doing shift work or working through the many public holidays over the summer period, I too say thank you.
I would particularly like to thank the men and women of our police and emergency services. Our police, firies, ambos and all of our emergency services are made up of so many good people who work so hard for our community. They have a generous and professional nature, with a steadfast dedication to the people of Canberra. They put their physical and mental wellbeing on the line each and every time they put on their uniform, and they do this for us.
I am, of course, concerned that despite the continuing work these selfless men and women do, this government seems to ignore the fact that their workloads are steadily increasing while their workforce is stagnant and, in some cases, shrinking. Our police force is smaller than at the beginning of the decade. Our ambulance service has seen a huge increase in the demand for services and there continue to be fewer firies than perhaps there should be.
Too often this government goes out of its way to prioritise its donors to the detriment of the wider community. The secure local jobs code contains some examples of this. In the enterprise negotiations for our staff in this place, the government’s position is that the contact details of staff should automatically be provided to the relevant unions, unless they opt out.
I have worked for unions and I know that getting members is difficult. But this is going a bit too far. We also see with the enshrinement of the UnionsACT MOU that
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