Page 381 - Week 02 - Thursday, 8 March 2007
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sector workers in the ACT of changes being made by the Howard government to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988?
MR STANHOPE: I thank the member for her question and acknowledge her continuing interest in this issue and in those changes that have been made to our industrial relations landscape that impact so adversely on workers and on families. Indeed, this particular change, the change to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act by the Howard government, will have a dramatic impact on a large group of workers and families within the Australian Capital Territory.
The amendments have been passed by the House of Representatives and opposed rigorously by federal Labor. Why this legislation has been so roundly condemned and so fiercely opposed by Labor governments and the Labor Party around Australia is that these amendments, when and if passed by the Senate, will remove, from workers compensation, coverage for journeys to and from work and during recess breaks. This is a most significant reduction in coverage and protection for workers in Australia and a very significant change to the working conditions and protections that workers traditionally, universally, have accepted as appropriate.
Those members of our public service that have in all their working lives been protected by workers compensation in their journeys to and from work and as they travel during recess breaks will, on the passage of this legislation by the Liberals, no longer be protected. This really is a very significant change to the entitlements and protections of ACT public servants and we stand and condemn it and it has been roundly condemned by the labour movement within the territory and by Labor parties and governments around Australia. But, of course, there has been silence from the Liberal Party within the territory—significant silence.
The Liberal Party within the ACT obviously support the removal of this protection for every ACT public servant. The Liberal Party in the Australian Capital Territory do not believe that ACT public servants of any description should be covered by workers compensation as they travel to and from work and as they travel during their breaks. That is the policy position of the ACT branch of the Liberal Party. They have not declared this position publicly, as they have not actually declared publicly any position on any policy issue, though they had a closed-door hidden policy forum last night, apparently, the fruits of which we are yet to hear.
But it is symptomatic, of course, of an opposition that has now been in opposition for 2½ years. They do not have a single policy of any substance on any particular issue, other than, of course, the declared policies in relation to revenue—and the revenue policies that they have announced involve the non-collection of well over $100 million in taxes and charges. That is the only stated, declared policy—
Mr Mulcahy: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The question related to Comcare and changes related to occupational health and safety. It has not even a remote relevance to Liberal Party tax policy or otherwise, and I don’t understand what it has got to do with the question.
MR SPEAKER: I think the Chief Minister is drawing some contrast—
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