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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 890 ..
MR BERRY: Withdraw what?
MR SPEAKER: "Gary-ing".
MR BERRY: I withdraw it.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr Kaine: You have just been Winstoned, mate.
MR BERRY: Young Winstoned. You are incorrect in the accusations you made, and you need to be exposed for it. You do this all the time, and less and less you should get away with it. Are you trying to tell me that unions, faced with the joint venture, would not understand that if they were not to transfer they would have nowhere else to go?
Mr Humphries: They can stay in ACTEW.
MR BERRY: What faces them there? There is no work. Only redundancy faces them, it would seem.
Mr Humphries: No. There is a job guarantee there.
MR BERRY: What are they going to do in ACTEW? There is going to be nothing there. It is merely a shell. It is a labour hire company. You do not understand your own legislation. If you look a little bit further down clause 23, you will get to subsection (3), where it states:
A provision in an agreement is void so far as -
(a) it is inconsistent with subsection (2) or a right or a remedy arising from the subsection; or
(b) it would make it unduly impractical or disadvantageous for ACTEW to exercise its power under subsection (2).
So that is one part of it covered quite clearly.
Mr Moore: No, it is not. You are amending subclause (1).
MR BERRY: Have a look at it. Do not give us that nonsense. In any event, despite all the argy-bargy that you are going on with, the fact of the matter is that employees in this organisation deserve to be represented by their organisations, notwithstanding the Liberal Party's abhorrence of trade unions. Say this is, in your classic terms, an ideological battle. I think unions should be able to represent their members in this important change in life where they have only a two-year guarantee on job security and you do not. Members can vote whichever way they like, but I will make my position clear in relation to this. This is going to be a very sensitive time for workers, and they deserve support and protection and they deserve to have an organisation which will stand up for them.
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