Questions Day 3 - Thursday 19 November 1992
Parliamentary Record 14
Questions for 6th Assembly 1990 - 1994; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 6th Assembly 1990 - 1994
1992-11-19
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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QUESTIONS - Thursday 19 November 1992 doing the job for DEET because DEET could not place any of these trainees in the real world ... Mr Stirling: Criticise DEET. Mr Bailey: Criticise the public service. Members interjecting. Mr SPEAKER: Order! We had this debate last night and I remind the member for Nhulunbuy that I had cause to pull him up. Interjections are acceptable, but screaming across the Chamber is totally unacceptable at any time. Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, I am not reflecting on the public servants themselves. I have had a great deal to do with many of them and they are very frustrated about having the burdens of federal Labor union policies placed on them. How can they go out into the Darwin business community, where unionism has been rejected outright, and attempt to place a trainee in an industry that has anything to do with the Federated Clerks Union, the union that requires compulsory membership for its trainees? How would any potential employer of those trainees consider such a proposal? They have rejected it. That is why DEET could not place trainees. The member for Nhulunbuy is an ex-DEET employee and therefore he has the contacts. I ask him to bring to this House some statistics which indicate how many clerical trainees have been placed in the real world of private enterprise in the Territory. I doubt whether there have been any because I understand that even the trainees are advised from time to time __ Mr Stirling: It is for community organisations. Mr FINCH: ... that they cannot be placed in real jobs in business because there is a limit to where they can be sent as a result of their being tied to the Federated Clerks Union which has ... Members interjecting. Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Transport and Works and the member for Nhulunbuy are continuing the debate that occurred last evening. I ask the minister not to be provocative and the member for Nhulunbuy to remain silent. Mr FINCH: Mr Speaker, compulsory unionism is an issue about which I feel very strongly. It is most undemocratic. It is a contravention of the anti-discrimination legislation that we passed the other day. In any shape or form, compulsory unionism is evil. It is even more evil when it is imposed on a young trainee who is desperate to obtain a job. They have to be 21-years-old and to have been out of work for a certain period to be eligible for the traineeships. The honourable member kindly tabled the Jobskills objectives last night. One of the purposes is that the unions have access to sign up the trainees at the very start of their careers. With the Federated Clerks Union, it is quite different. The union membership and the agreement of the employer is delivered along with the contract of employment. There is no choice. When trainees state that they do not wish to belong to a union, they are told not to worry about it because the scheme is paying for it. The scheme is paying for it, but it comes out of the fee to the brokers. However, that has been paid for as part of the federal tax system. Therefore, I reiterate that the taxpayer is paying the union fees which return to the Labor Party as campaign funds. 1304