Page 1441 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 26 September 1989
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Mr Moore: Rubbish! What rot!
MR BERRY: Mr Moore says that it is rot, but it is a well-known act. Mr Moore's participation in the process will weaken the legislation to provide occupational health and safety for workers in the Territory, if that legislation goes through in its current form recommended by the committee.
Mr Stefaniak believes, and I agree with him, that this is essential legislation. That proposition surprises me in view of some of the noises that I have heard from the Liberal Party, and in particular from its conservatives who wish to water down the occupational health and safety legislation to a state where it is almost meaningless. I must say - though I would not say this of any of the Liberal Party members here - that there are some unenlightened and conservative employers who work around the conservative fringes who worry more about short-term profits than the long-term safety of their workers and the efficiency of their enterprises.
Mr Moore might give that a bit of regard each time he thinks about his efforts to reduce the effectiveness of occupational health and safety legislation in the Territory. It is well for the Liberals to applaud this sort of agreement, but they are well known at revelling in the old ideals of confrontation in the industrial scene. That flies in the face of anything that they would say in support of occupational health and safety, particularly a democratic process such as has been adopted in the agreement between my department and the unions in the Australian Capital Territory. Of course, this Labor Government has a close association with unions and a special relationship with them, and a long history of representing the rights of Australian citizens.
Mr Moore: You are losing touch, Wayne.
MR BERRY: Mr Moore might say that I am losing touch, but I am sure, if it came to the support of trade unions for the Residents Rally party, its members would all be unemployed after the next election.
Returning to the issue at hand, I believe that this agreement is consistent with the occupational health and safety legislation which was proposed, and the major features of the agreement are incorporated in the legislation. However, the select committee I have already talked about has recommended that the consultative arrangements in the proposed legislation should be revised in order to exclude the unions - again I point to Mr Moore's involvement in that - and to provide for direct consultation between management and employees.
Mr Moore would know very well that the history of management in providing spontaneously occupational health and safety conditions for employees is not very good. It
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