Page 1755 - Week 06 - Thursday, 30 July 2020
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Nazish, who is an early childhood educator, told me:
For educators, long service leave provides sufficient time to relax, recharge and return to the industry. By boosting morale and increasing productivity of employees, long service leave helps in attraction and retention of educators in the early childhood sector to achieve the best learning outcomes for our children.
It is timely to consider whether the coverage of the scheme should be extended, particularly as we are seeing the impacts of COVID-19 on working people. Christine and other working Canberrans can trust that this government will always stand up for them, and ensure that our workplace relations system provides the best outcomes for them and their families. I thank Ms Cody for her strong advocacy on behalf of hairdressers and working people in the ACT, and I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MS CODY (Murrumbidgee) (3.05), in reply: I would like to thank my colleagues Minister Orr and Minister Rattenbury for their kind words today and their support for this motion. It is 100 per cent about working people in Canberra. Mr Wall was correct; his speech did not surprise me one little bit, but there might be some things that surprise Mr Wall. I, too, spoke to many business owners; but do not take my word for it. I will quote a business owner that was interviewed by the Canberra Times, not even by me. In this morning’s Canberra Times article, we heard from a boss that owns a salon in Woden—a great barbershop, actually. He is a really good hairdresser. I might have to go and see him myself; I need a bit of a trim. He was very supportive of this motion. He spoke to me not so long ago about the fact that hairdressers need something like the construction industry has for portable long service leave.
The portable long service leave scheme is something that has stood the test of time. It has been very well received. It has looked after workers here in the ACT. It has looked after workers in some industries. It is time now, particularly during this tragic pandemic, for us to look at workers in other industries that need the protection of the portable long service leave scheme.
I am advocating today on behalf of hairdressers, because that is an industry I know, and know very well. I can tell you all of the ins and outs, as both a worker and a boss, of the hairdressing industry. I know what it is like to pay your bills, to treat your staff well and to make sure that they are looked after every day, so that they, too, can buy their groceries. It is also very important to ensure that they get all of their leave entitlements—not just the good pay but the leave entitlements.
Again, I thank my colleagues on this side of the chamber for their input to today’s debate. I commend my motion to the Assembly, and thank all of the hairdressers that have come forward since I announced that I was doing this and thanked me for my advocacy for them.
Question put:
That the motion be agreed to.
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