Page 716 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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Mr Connolly: But it is not affiliated with the Labor Party, so your argument about the fees is nonsense.
MR MOORE: I do not give a stuff whom they are affiliated with. Many stories of this type are flooding into my office. It seems to me that, had the result of the most recent Federal election been different, with John Hewson at the helm and John Howard looking after industrial relations, many people would have recognised the need to flock to join unions. They would have seen a very good reason to join the unions. Perhaps people may see things differently now that a Labor government is reinstated.
Whichever way we look at unions, the bottom line is that we live in a democracy and we should use democratic processes wherever we can. The unions, although I have a great deal of respect for them in many cases, are not democratic. They are not democratic in this issue - the issue of being able to force people to join a union because people do not have the freedom to choose. That basic right, that basic freedom to choose, is why I oppose compulsory unionism. They are also often denied one other basic democratic right. Our democracy works because we have a secret ballot. Decisions made by union members as a whole should always be by a democratic secret ballot. That is an issue for another day. Madam Speaker, I commend this Bill to the house.
Debate (on motion by Mr Berry) adjourned.
SCHOOL CLOSURES
Debate resumed from 24 February 1993, on motion by Mr Cornwell:
That this Assembly urges the ACT Government to deal flexibly with the problem of school closures in the ACT in the interests of educational fairness and equity.
MR CORNWELL (10.50): Madam Speaker, in concluding my opening remarks to this motion I would like to mention that in a final attempt by this Government to wriggle out of its responsibility to close Griffith Primary School it went so far as to promise that a survey would be conducted in October this year to see whether the school could be reopened. I do not wonder why Pam Cahir called this Government morally bankrupt, because who really is going to be interested in a closed school, except, perhaps, vandals? I do not know why you held out this misleading carrot to the parents and the children from Griffith Primary who are already distressed.
The Government's behaviour in this sad affair has been less than responsible and, I believe, shows a contempt for the social justice principles it continually purports to support and espouse. It is to be hoped that it will take a different and more courageous approach in the interests of government school pupils and their parents in the future. It is for this reason, Madam Speaker, that I ask that the Assembly urge the ACT Government to deal flexibly with the problem of school closures in the ACT in future in the interests of educational fairness and equity.
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