Page 2527 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 23 August 2006
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Mr Speaker, I stand here today as a slightly unwell worker—I have a bit of a cold at the moment—knowing full well that my employee, the electorate of Brindabella, would be more than happy for me to take the time to recuperate. I want to make the point that some of those members of the community have employers that do not look so favourably on the taking of sick leave. With many more Australians retiring later in life, yet more pressure is being added on the next generation of workers.
I believe that we must keep our workplaces safe and secure so as to maintain the health of workers. I call on my colleagues in the chamber today to stand up for the rights and health of ACT workers. I call on opposition members to stand up for the members of the community that have elected them to this Assembly, to fight for their right to a healthy workplace, to fight for their right to all employee-related benefits and to stand up against the WorkChoices legislation. I call on members of the Canberra community not to let these draconian laws affect the health of them and other workers.
The WorkChoices legislation is having a detrimental effect on the health of workers. We have a responsibility to take this issue to the government that made the legislation and inform it of the effects. The health of workers is a responsibility of all workers and employers, including the government, in Canberra and we should not let WorkChoices disadvantage our community.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (11.59): I really do not know quite where to start my rebuttal of the position—I would not say the argument—put forward by Mr Gentleman. I will do my best to tackle some of the claims, but I preface my remarks by saying that I guess this is what we always refer to as Mr Gentleman’s Chicken Little motion. It is this: the sky is falling in and the Howard government is to blame.
Mr Gentleman brings on these motions every couple of sitting weeks and it begs the question: who is in opposition? Oppositions are often criticised for being negative and carping, yet all we ever hear from Mr Gentleman is how the Howard government is ruining everything, ruining things for the people of Australia. Clearly, that is not the case but we hear it all the time. We hear it from Mr Gentleman constantly. Despite being in government, he seems to have nothing positive to say. We expect governments to be talking about the positive difference they are making for the community, yet all we hear about are the so-called negatives of the Howard government.
In the previous speech, WorkChoices was blamed for virtually everything. WorkChoices is now responsible for childhood obesity and diabetes. It is responsible for the death of the tourism industry. We have heard previously that it is responsible for the end of barbecues and weekend sport. Is there anything else we could add to the list—the conflict in Lebanon or cancer? What else are we going to blame WorkChoices for? Perhaps we could blame the poor performance of Collingwood over the years on WorkChoices!
Mr Gentleman put forward not a shred of evidence to back up his motion. But he has often spoken in this place without any stats to back up his claims. Paragraph (2) of the motion states:
acknowledges the growing evidence on the effects of the implementation of the new WorkChoices Bill on the health of workers …
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