Page 5556 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 9 December 2009
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Mr Hanson: The question is, very specifically: what is still under negotiation—not who has the minister engaged with. It is: what is still under negotiation?
MS GALLAGHER: I am happy to go to it; I have 27 seconds now. But what they do not understand is that where you move or you shift in your negotiations is based on whom you speak to, Mr Hanson. Yes, I have spoken to a whole lot of people. There are issues around the 30-year lease. There are issues around ownership of the building. There are issues around a transition and potential changes to the current service level agreement. They are all the issues that have been raised, that I am trying to respond to.
Ms Porter: Is there a supplementary left, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, how would the interests of hospice staff be safeguarded if the sale was to proceed?
MS GALLAGHER: As part of the consultations, I have met with staff several times. Indeed, I have a staff representative that I am negotiating with directly. Staff have raised a number of concerns that we have responded to. They have raised concerns around their superannuation, and we have addressed that concern. They have raised concerns around no longer being public servants. They are currently dual employees. We have addressed that by giving them an enduring right to return to the public service at any point in time, provided there is continuity of service at the hospice.
They have raised concerns about the adequacy of the current service level agreement—the current funding that is allocated to the hospice—and I have committed to a review of that. They have asked for a meeting with Little Company of Mary and myself to talk about, if this proposal goes ahead, an appropriate transition plan. They have also spoken to me around concerns about wages and conditions and if they are not covered by the public sector agreement, what that would mean for their wages and conditions. My response to that is that the government would remain 100 per cent funder of that service and that we can put a clause in the agreement that requires a flow on of wages—that anything won in the public sector, as we would be funding that agreement, would flow on to nurses and allied health staff at Clare Holland House.
I have had two meetings there. The second meeting where I went back and addressed all of their concerns I think did ease the concerns that they had expressed in the first meeting. But it is a turbulent time. I regret that. I regret the turbulence that it is causing for staff at both of those facilities—at the hospital and Clare Holland House. The sooner we resolve this matter, the better I think in their interests—but once proper process has been finalised.
Energy—solar
MS PORTER: Mr Speaker, my question, through you, is to the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water. Minister, would you provide an update on the uptake of solar power generation in the ACT?
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