Page 1934 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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Mr Jensen has asked specifically about the Canberra Avenue variation. As members might know, the draft variation to policy was released for public comment by the Interim Territory Planning Authority in May this year. The Interim Territory Planning Authority has advised me that it has received some 40 submissions on that proposed variation and that these submissions are being examined at the moment. The Interim Territory Planning Authority is preparing a report to the Government on the matter of Canberra Avenue. It has not yet come to me but, like Mr Jensen, I regard it as a very important matter. I do not at the moment have an indication of when I might receive it, but I am certainly happy to take up the question of its significance and ask that the report to the Government be expedited.
Public Service Strike
MR DUBY: My question is addressed to the Chief Minister. Is the Chief Minister aware of a report on WIN television that ACT Government Ministers were on strike yesterday? Was this report correct; if not, did she and her Ministers cross a union picket line?
MS FOLLETT: Thank you, Mr Duby, for your question. What a great question! It is absolutely untrue to say that ACT Government Ministers were on strike yesterday, and the import of the WIN television report, which I have now seen, is quite misleading. In particular I think it made a reference to the Follett Government stopping work for the day. That is quite simply untrue. I was at work yesterday; I did not cancel a single appointment for the day. Mr Whalan was at work, Mr Berry was at work, Mrs Grassby was at work. In fact it said Mrs Grassby was off for the day, I think. That is simply not true. Mrs Grassby was at work for the day. So the import of that television report was totalling misleading, Mr Speaker. The Government was most certainly not on strike.
Mr Duby has asked whether Ministers crossed a picket line. I do not believe any Ministers crossed a picket line. I certainly did not. But I think the point must be made, Mr Speaker, that whatever our views on industrial action, it is not appropriate for Government Ministers to go on strike, and that was certainly not the case yesterday.
Another interesting point worth making in regard to the strike yesterday is that the ACT Government is not a party to this dispute and it puts us in a rather awkward position when, in fact, we are dealing with these industrial relations matters second-hand. In fact the Commonwealth public servants' problems are with the Commonwealth Government, not with the ACT Government. So it does put us in a rather difficult position. But just to repeat, the WIN television report that the Follett Government stopped work is totally untrue.
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