Page 3143 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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I do not subscribe to the view that the spectre of Work Choices should forever cloud the coalition’s approach to IR.
So she does not think it was bad. She does not think it should cloud judgement. Mr Wall says that these changes do not go far enough.
In the few minutes remaining to me I will refer to a University of Sydney report to the Office of Industrial Relations in New South Wales, which stated:
These changes have included reductions in pay for already low paid workers, less certainty about wage rates and pay rises, intensification of work, weakening of job security, less financial independence, less money for children and basic household costs, less representation and say at work and in the community, and poorer health and wellbeing.
The same report goes on to say:
Women are struggling financially as a result of change at work and this is having a direct affect upon their capacity for independence.
Is that what we want for the ACT? Is that what we want to provide Canberra families with—less certainty, less opportunity, a reduction in financial independence, and less money for children and basic household costs? It is not the Canberra I want, and from what I have heard this morning, it is the Canberra that the Canberra Liberals are happy to serve up.
In regard to the IFAs, this is indeed a frightening concept. The panel has made recommendations. It is not what the Liberal Party is proposing, but let us be clear, as we have heard from others who have spoken in this place today, that the changes to the IFAs will have a significant negative effect on workers, and predominantly on women in the workplace. I will not stand here and accept that that is the Canberra I want to see. I commend Ms Berry for bringing this motion to the Assembly. It should stand as it reads, and we should all in this chamber do all we can to protect workers’ rights. (Time expired.)
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (4.08): I am pleased to rise to speak on the amendment, and also on the substantive motion brought forward by my colleague Ms Berry earlier today.
This is an important motion. It is an important motion because it goes to the heart of whether or not people are entitled to have their labour appropriately rewarded, and whether or not they are able to ensure that when they are working in a workplace, they are treated fairly, and that they are not put under undue pressure to have their wages and conditions wound back by their employer.
Of course, this has been one of the fundamental issues that Labor, throughout its history, and Labor federally and locally more recently have been extremely conscious of, and have worked to protect and uphold, particularly through the passage of the Fair Work Act.
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