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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4884 ..

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Smyth has the call.

MR SMYTH: We must put appropriate legislation in place quickly. That is not what we are seeing from the current government. Commitments are not being met and reviews are not being completed on time. (Extension of time granted.)

Mr Speaker, I will comment on some of the things that you said earlier in debate and I will do so with great trepidation. You commenced your speech by thanking people in the gallery. It is appropriate to thank people in the gallery because of the intense community interest in this issue. It is to their credit that many of them came back to listen to the debate this evening. I welcome them to their Assembly which should be making good laws on their behalf. However, we should not be implementing laws that lead to alienation and fear or that drive wedges between various sections of the community.

We have only to look at some of the lists that have been compiled to see the organisations that oppose this legislation. If we are to deal effectively with occupational health and safety and workplace safety issues we need a different culture. We must work together to achieve our goals and we must try to prevent accidents from occurring. That is not what we are seeing today. What we are seeing today is a cheap shot; it is the easy option.

This bill seeks to blame somebody. Why do we not all take responsibility for the deaths of people in the workplace? Bosses, unions, workers, the community, educators and lawmakers should all take responsibility for the deaths of those workers. After all, we are all responsible for the safety of those around us. I believe that we should work together rather than drive wedges between different sections of the community. We must not blame one another across this chamber.

That will not happen if members have that sort of attitude. We must be willing to pull down the barriers and work together. There are better ways to improve the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It will not happen if wedge politics are employed and the government adopts a simplistic approach to a very serious issue. This government has had two years in which to implement a review and to draft some legislation. What we have seen is two years of inactivity by this government.

Mr Stanhope: Will you have the numbers before Christmas, Bill?

MR SMYTH: I am sure that government members hope that Kim Beazley has the numbers as Simon lost his seat.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Smyth has the call.

MR SMYTH: The Chief Minister, who is trivialising this issue, clearly has no depth. We, as legislators, must be willing to get together with unions, employers, community groups and educators to do something about this whole issue.

An incident having occurred in the gallery-

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