Page 2096 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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expected in the first quarter of next year: payroll, workforce, administration, recruitment and onboarding. We are, in fact, addressing the issues and Mrs Dunne’s constant claims of not doing anything are completely and utterly baseless.
There are also issues that have been raised in our culture review oversight group meetings, which are addressed by Canberra Health Services, and need to be addressed as a cultural issue as well, because we know that there are longstanding cultural issues about junior doctors being expected to work long hours. We are trying to move towards a system where that is not the expectation, where supervisors and roster managers are clearly expected not to require significant overtime and for staff to be paid for the time that they work.
That is what the ACT Labor government is committed to, that is what Labor governments commit to: treating their workers with respect, paying them fairly for a day’s work and providing them with leave for time away from work. It is a far cry from the way that Liberal governments treat their workers. Commonwealth public servants under a Liberal government have seen their pay and conditions slashed in real terms, going years with no increases in pay. On top of that, the commonwealth Liberal government announced on 9 April this year that it would freeze pay rises for commonwealth public servants for the next 12 months. That is what Liberal governments do.
If anybody in this city believes that an ACT Liberal government would be any different, tell them they are dreaming. Everybody knows how Liberal governments treat public servants, and it is not what we do on this side of the chamber. Liberal governments cut public services, cut wages, cut hard-won conditions and weaken the ability of public servants to deliver critical public services.
Mrs Dunne: No; you just steal their wages.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Mrs Dunne likes to interject and intervene, because she is actually a bit confused about the fact that we are onto this. We are introducing a new system; we are addressing the issues that have been raised; we are already investigating. Her call for an investigation is completely redundant because that work is already underway. Every time a payroll issue is raised with us we address it and we are now implementing a new system, a new system across government, to address the issues that Mrs Dunne is raising.
Mrs Dunne: In 2023.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: In 2021, Mrs Dunne—I do not know if you were listening—quarter one, 2021. That would be within the next six months.
Mrs Dunne: That is not what the junior doctors were told. They were told 2023.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: That is nice, Mrs Dunne, and I will follow that up.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Cody): Mrs Dunne, we did listen to you in silence.
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