Page 1962 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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of the major employer organisations in this city, without exception, as the Opposition has discovered in the last few days, have never been consulted by the Government on this legislation.
Very comprehensive, complex legislation that is going to affect small business in particular in this city, quite seriously and significantly, is introduced, and none of the employer organisations have been consulted. The Deputy Chief Minister sits there - this is the Minister for this open and consultative government that we hear touted constantly - and has not discussed the matter with any major employer organisation in the city.
Now, if we do not know that that sort of consultation has not taken place, how can the Deputy Chief Minister imply that it is our problem? It is his problem, and he will live to regret the fact, in this particular case, that he has not discussed the matter with the major employer groups. So where are we going and how hollow is this Government's claim that it is a consultative and open government?
I do not need to stop at the legislation program. That is just one aspect of the criticism and complaint. Another example is question time. How often have we seen Ministers simply refuse or decline to answer questions. It happened again today. Half the questions have been taken on notice. They say, "They are too hard, we can't answer them", or simply, "We don't intend to".
What about the Chief Minister's so-called budget consultation process? There are hundreds of people out there in the community who do not believe that they had any input into the budget consultative process, and they ought to know. They are the people who have got the complaints about the budget and its outcome.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The time for this debate has expired.
Suspension of Standing Orders
Motion (by Mr Berry) agreed to:
That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would allow discussion on the matter of public importance to continue.
MR KAINE: I will just refer to a couple of specific things that are going on in occupational health and safety. The Deputy Chief Minister and the Chief Minister no doubt are going to claim that there has been plenty of time to debate the Occupational Health and Safety Bill, and so there has, but what has happened? Yesterday afternoon at 5 o'clock the Deputy Chief Minister handed out limited numbers of copies of a document clearly stamped "Working Draft Only".
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