Page 2706 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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This is an important fact to remember, and it was pleasing to hear the minister confirm that this is indeed the case, in the face of the ongoing scare campaigns and what seems to be a personality battle being waged by unions in the ACT against the Workplace Safety Commissioner.
In light of these safety rates, I would like to make mention of recommendation 41 in the estimates committee report, which recommends that the ACT government publish work health and safety data to give the ACT a comparative ranking by key industries compared to other jurisdictions. This will give the committee, and the Assembly more broadly, an understanding of any shortcomings by comparison to other industries—in a sense, comparing apples with apples.
It is also important to note that the work and the functionality of WorkSafe ACT under the guidance of the Workplace Safety Commissioner continues to be independent. This issue has been raised in a number of quarters recently, most notably by the unions and UnionsACT in conjunction with the CFMEU. I look forward to Minister Stephen-Smith’s speech in this area. Hopefully she can convey her full confidence in the continuation of the existing WorkSafe commissioner, which I think is something that many in the community are looking for. (Second speaking period taken.)
There is a considerable amount of work being done in many quarters in the community to promote the development of a convention centre in the territory, and I note that there is an inquiry ongoing in one of the Assembly’s committees looking into this issue. But it is quite concerning and has upset a number of people in the community—the line that the Chief Minister has taken in playing cheap political games with such a big-ticket item that so many in the community have placed a lot of hope in and have stated will make a big change to the way tourism and business operate in the ACT.
I refer to an article in the Canberra Times, published in February this year, which says, in relation to the convention centre, that Chief Minister Andrew Barr:
… would push for federal funding as part of negotiations on a “city deal”, but did not believe the Commonwealth was “fair dinkum about supporting the project”.
“If they’re not interested, and there’s every indication to date that they’re not, the nature of the project changes,” he said.
It has come to light that, whilst the Chief Minister was saying that the commonwealth was not interested in this project, he himself was actually writing to the commonwealth saying he was not interested in this project. And what interest can you expect the commonwealth to take when the leader of the local government is saying, “Do it, and do it all on your own bat, but locally there’s no support and there’s very little interest”? This is an instance where the Chief Minister is trying to play cheap politics and say the commonwealth is neglecting the territory, when in fact it is the Chief Minister and Treasurer who is letting down the Canberra business community and not leading by example.
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