Page 4977 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY GAMING AND LIQUOR AUTHORITY (REPEAL) BILL 1990
[COGNATE BILLS:
BETTING (TOTALIZATOR ADMINISTRATION) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1990
LIQUOR (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1990]
Debate resumed from 29 November, on motion by Mr Collaery:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Betting (Totalizator Administration) (Amendment) Bill 1990 and the Liquor (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1990? There being no objection, that course will be followed, and I remind members that, in debating order of the day No. 2, they may also address their remarks to orders of the day Nos 3 and 4.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (8.43): The Bills that we now have before us relate to the abolition of the Gaming and Liquor Authority and to the establishment of the Totalisator Agency Board as a Territory owned corporation. During the course of the debate today on the Territory Owned Corporations Bill, the Labor Party has indicated its opposition to the creation of Territory owned corporations while the Government remains unwilling to provide some reasonable guarantees to workers about their wages and conditions.
In response to that, Mr Kaine has tabled a document which, he asserted at the time, should have resolved those difficulties. It does not. In fact, the document that has been tabled, while it addresses each of the issues that I raised, in no way offers any guarantees whatsoever. Quite the contrary. If this is what is being offered to the Trades and Labour Council, it is no wonder they are concerned. Not only does it not offer those undertakings on award conditions for workers but, in fact, it makes quite clear that the Government, if it can, will be backing away from any such undertakings. It is quite clear to me, from this document, that workers need to be very much aware that they are going to have a battle on their hands with this Government to maintain the conditions of work that they have fought for so hard and over so many years.
That was one of the main bases on which we opposed the Territory Owned Corporations Bill. The Bills that we have before us at the moment fall into exactly the category that I spoke of earlier. We are simply not convinced that the Government has done its work there. I am not at all confident that there has been any meaningful negotiation between the Government and the trade unions. In my view, slapping a piece of paper in their direction does not constitute negotiation.
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