Mr WOOD - 2008-09-16
Last year, your department and the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory ignored a proposed MOU from the Australian Services Union put to the NT Local Government Advisory Board to protect workers’ rights. Instead, you and LGANT came up with your own set of principles.
Is the ASU Industrial Officer, Lucio Matarazzo, right when he says that the principles are worth little as they are not enforceable in law? Considering there are no super shires which have a democratically-elected council, are not these agreements or principles null and void because they have not been approved by an elected body of councillors, only by a group of unelected, government-appointed officials?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. Member for Nelson, I was elected, and I was the minister who made sure that those principles reflected what the community and what the …
Mr Wood: No, you are not a member of local government.
Mr KNIGHT: You are not letting me answer the question.
Mr Wood: You are making a furphy.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, this local government reform has been much needed, much talked about …
Mr Wood: So democracy goes out the door.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KNIGHT: … but it was only this government that had the guts to actually do something about it. We had a big task. Three decades of a mess out there; three decades of sorting out assets and organisations, and little empires out …
Mr Wood: Are you saying every council was a mess? That is an insult.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you have asked the minister a question. Please allow him to answer the question.
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, there were 4500 local government employees involved in this local government reform. It was a mammoth undertaking to do something which was right, which we had the guts to do, which was talked about by the CLP for a very long time. They agreed with local government reform; the member for Nelson agrees with local government reform; but we had the guts to do something about it. We are well on our way to completing the local government reform.
Around 4500 employees had to transition from their previous organisations, from about 100 different organisations, across to eight new shires. We agreed with some principles to ensure that those local government employees were transitioned fairly across to the new shires. We agreed on a 12-month transition period, where those conditions would be honoured, and in that first 12 months, the unions, the ASU and the LHMU, would help negotiate a collective agreement for these local government employees.
These local government employees – a vast majority of those bush employees - have not had the opportunity to have a union represent them because they are across vast distances. They have been on individual agreements. So, now, for the first time in the Territory, we will have, for those bush shires, a collective agreement, negotiated in partnership with the unions, so that they will get some real conditions, they will get some fair conditions.
Member for Nelson, you would have to appreciate that there are some conditions of employment which far exceed what you would think would be fair and reasonable, and some of those people are coming out at the moment. Where there have been cases highlighted where perhaps conditions have not been transitioned, we have engaged with them and we have sorted them out. My door is always open to those particular cases and we will sort them out.
As I said, we are going to bring some fair conditions out bush to local government employees, because we want them to stay. We want to attract good employees, and we want to grow Indigenous Territorians and those people living in the regions into local government because it is a great sphere of government producing local services for local people.
Is the ASU Industrial Officer, Lucio Matarazzo, right when he says that the principles are worth little as they are not enforceable in law? Considering there are no super shires which have a democratically-elected council, are not these agreements or principles null and void because they have not been approved by an elected body of councillors, only by a group of unelected, government-appointed officials?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Nelson for his question. Member for Nelson, I was elected, and I was the minister who made sure that those principles reflected what the community and what the …
Mr Wood: No, you are not a member of local government.
Mr KNIGHT: You are not letting me answer the question.
Mr Wood: You are making a furphy.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, this local government reform has been much needed, much talked about …
Mr Wood: So democracy goes out the door.
Madam SPEAKER: Order!
Mr KNIGHT: … but it was only this government that had the guts to actually do something about it. We had a big task. Three decades of a mess out there; three decades of sorting out assets and organisations, and little empires out …
Mr Wood: Are you saying every council was a mess? That is an insult.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Nelson, you have asked the minister a question. Please allow him to answer the question.
Mr KNIGHT: Madam Speaker, there were 4500 local government employees involved in this local government reform. It was a mammoth undertaking to do something which was right, which we had the guts to do, which was talked about by the CLP for a very long time. They agreed with local government reform; the member for Nelson agrees with local government reform; but we had the guts to do something about it. We are well on our way to completing the local government reform.
Around 4500 employees had to transition from their previous organisations, from about 100 different organisations, across to eight new shires. We agreed with some principles to ensure that those local government employees were transitioned fairly across to the new shires. We agreed on a 12-month transition period, where those conditions would be honoured, and in that first 12 months, the unions, the ASU and the LHMU, would help negotiate a collective agreement for these local government employees.
These local government employees – a vast majority of those bush employees - have not had the opportunity to have a union represent them because they are across vast distances. They have been on individual agreements. So, now, for the first time in the Territory, we will have, for those bush shires, a collective agreement, negotiated in partnership with the unions, so that they will get some real conditions, they will get some fair conditions.
Member for Nelson, you would have to appreciate that there are some conditions of employment which far exceed what you would think would be fair and reasonable, and some of those people are coming out at the moment. Where there have been cases highlighted where perhaps conditions have not been transitioned, we have engaged with them and we have sorted them out. My door is always open to those particular cases and we will sort them out.
As I said, we are going to bring some fair conditions out bush to local government employees, because we want them to stay. We want to attract good employees, and we want to grow Indigenous Territorians and those people living in the regions into local government because it is a great sphere of government producing local services for local people.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016