Page 3104 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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of these fair work amendments. Oakes revisited the famous memo to John Howard from the former Northern Territory Chief Minister and, in 2001, the federal Liberal president, Shane Stone. Stone’s assessment of the Howard government in the wake of state election losses to the Labor Party was brutal—“mean, tricky and out of touch”. As Oakes said, there is a lesson here for the Abbott government.
Despite Mr Abbott’s assurances before the election, there is no fairness in the new bargaining relationships in the fair work amendments—mean, tricky and out of touch. There is no fairness in the parental leave extension provisions. They are mean, tricky and out of touch and run counter to the Mr Abbott’s crocodile tears about his commitments to his “signature” parental leave scheme. There is no fairness in the reduction, for some workers, of their right to be paid leave loadings on termination—mean, tricky and out of touch again.
There is no fairness in the fair work amendments’ new mean, tricky and out of touch limitations on unions’ abilities to represent their members and visit them on worksites. There is no fairness in Mr Abbott breaking his promise to just implement particular recommendations from the 2012 fair work review. The fair work amendments go well beyond the recommendations from the 2012 fair work review. In the fair work amendments, the devil is in the subclauses, with ideological tweaks and changes to disadvantage the most vulnerable in our community—mean, tricky and out of touch again.
We were told by Mr Abbott before the election that he would take a minimalist approach to workplace relations and that he would take any major changes to the next election. Going on the changes in this Fair Work Amendment Bill already, we have a right to fear for the fairness—or the meanness and trickiness—of the more major changes they will spring at the next election.
The ACT government and the Labor Party are committed to a vibrant private sector in Canberra and the needs of small businesses for flexibility in employing staff. We believe that we already have a good balance between the rights of employees and employers. The current system allows some certainty for employees and employers and respects the needs of both. We do not need another Liberals’ ideological wander up the garden path.
This motion recognises the ACT government is already committed to small business in the ACT. We are supporting small business in many ways such as through the business development strategy and the red tape reduction strategy. Of course, we are committed to investing in our economy, not imposing the austerity measures of the federal Liberals that would drive small business to the wall and increase unemployment. Again, as with so many of his promises in opposition compared to the reality in government, Mr Abbott’s commitment to the truth and fair work practices are over-promised and under-delivered.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.58): I am glad Ms Berry has brought the issue of the Fair Work Amendment Bill to the Assembly. I am concerned, and the Greens are concerned, that the amendments in this bill will a have negative impact on workers, including workers here in the ACT. My federal Greens’ colleagues have made this
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