Industrial action increasing in Victoria due to Labor’s distain for workers

Hansard: 13 March 2008 ASSEMBLY

Mr CLARK (Box Hill) — The Brumby government’s handling of industrial relations is appalling. It is clear from what happened at question time yesterday that neither the Premier, nor the health minister, nor the industrial relations minister had a clue about what was going on with the strike by health professionals that is threatening to shut down large parts of Victoria’s hospital system next week, despite their claiming to have been in negotiations with the union for months. Victoria is now the strike capital of Australia, having over half of all industrial disputes across the nation. However, as Neil Mitchell pointed out on radio 3AW this morning, we have very few strikes in the private sector these days; almost all strikes are by state public sector employees such as nurses, teachers, health professionals and other government employees.

The Howard government reforms brought about a massive reduction in industrial disputes across the nation. However, the stand-out problem area is Victoria, particularly the Victorian public sector, and the reason is clear — the Brumby government just cannot manage. We have the industrial relations minister and Attorney-General building castles in the air with his industrial and social legislation, oblivious to the harm it will do to the real world of working families. His family responsibilities legislation is in defiance even of federal Labor policy and is at odds with federal Labor’s promise to achieve uniform industrial relations legislation. It will impose additional burdens and legal complexities on employers and thus deter rather than promote genuine workplace flexibility — and it will hurt working families. At the same time neither the minister nor any of his colleagues, nor even senior representatives, will actually sit down and talk meaningfully to workers or their representatives so as to understand their issues and reach fair and sensible solutions to their concerns, causing further unnecessary hurt to working families across Victoria.