Page 3103 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014

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You forgot to mention that in the motion, Ms Berry.

Paragraph (e) states:

… on elements such as union workplace access, individual flexibility arrangements and removal of the ability to strike first and talk later, the Coalition is delivering on policy promises made by the Labor Party prior to the 2007 election …

You must have forgotten to implement those ones. Six years later, they had not done it. And that is the problem.

What should we be doing? What we should be doing is ensuring that businesses in the ACT have certainty, that when the government commit to delivering city to the lake, they actually mean it and do not delay it; that when the government commit to do something, they actually make the case and then get on with it; that they actually get rid of red tape; and that they actually reduce charges, instead of the 30 per cent increase that occurred for some businesses in their rates. There you go. “We are not going to triple your rates.” The rates are going through the roof and we are ticking it up. People, I think, are looking at their rates bills and saying, “These are going up,” as other charges have gone up under this government.

Let us cut red tape and reduce charges so that we encourage productivity and growth. Take it up, Ms Berry, with your colleagues. It is all well and good to slag the federal government for taking more money out of the pockets of workers. I think if you read your own budget papers you will find Treasurer Barr has got his hand in people’s pockets well before the federal government gets there.

I think the government should report to the Assembly by the last sitting in 2014 on what actions it will be taking to deliver certainty for businesses, cut red tape, reduce charges and taxes and encourage productivity and growth in the areas that we are capable of influencing.

DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (11.53): The Fair Work Amendment Bill is the latest in a line of surprises from the no surprises Abbott government. The bill has not gained more attention because there have been so many post-election, post-budget backflips, half-truths and no-truths from this federal government that it almost is not news anymore. It is what the disillusioned electorate have come to expect from the Abbott government. The Fair Work Amendment Bill is another case of the federal Liberals misleading the electorate. It will have real consequences for Canberra employees. They lose, whether they are in a union or not or whether they understand these complicated sleights of hand lessening their rights in the workplace. I do not know if the federal Liberals are trying to be too smart by half or are just contemptuous of the electorate.

Laurie Oakes recently wrote of Tony Abbott, and prime ministers in general, needing to hear from their colleagues about where they are going wrong, and they need to listen to the uncomfortable truths. Mr Abbott needs to hear of the greedy over-reach


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