Parliamentary record : Part I debates (16 August 1990)
Debates for 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 5th Assembly 1987 - 1990
1990-08-16
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
English
Debates
Northern Territory Legislative Assembly
Darwin
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Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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https://hdl.handle.net/10070/220304
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/699527
DEBATES - Thursday 16 August 1990 research officer, just before the 1980 election. He has been here for 10 years. He has been Assistant Secretary of the North Australian Workers Union twice in that time. On both occasions, he was elected unopposed. He was also Assistant Secretary of the Trades and Labor Council and served on a number of committees of that organisation. While he has been in the Northern Territory, he has been involved in a number of maj or indus t ri a 1 batt 1 es He was i nvo 1 ved in the pub 1 i c sector district allowance case, which the member for Nightcliff will remember with some satisfaction because the honourable member was on the winning side and Peter Tullgren was on the losing side. .Peter Tullgrenwas involved also in the publ ic servic~ dispute, in 1987, again against the member for Nightcliff, and I am not quite sure who won that dispute. Mr Hatton: An honourable draw. Mr SMITH: An honourable draw! Further, he has been involved as part of the negotiating team on public sector award restructuring. He has had his place in most negotiations on the mining and building industries in the 1980s, and specifically the site allowance cases at Yulara and Ranger. He was involved too in the initial commission hearings on the Ranger High Court decision which made it easier for union members to obtain reinstatement after dismissal following industrial action. This is considered to be one of the most important High Court decisions to be handed down on industrial relations in Australia. Because he is a fl amboyant character and very good wi th words, he tended to represent the unions publicly on many of the major cases. As well, he was a very effective representative of individual union members who needed the union's help. His specialities were, particularly, the hospital system, where he represented and assisted many individual union members, and, secondly - and this always seemed somewhat surprising to me -he became an expert representative of the prison officers. Peter Tullgren and prison officers do not quite go together in my mental set, but he was a very effect i ve representative for pri son offi cers. At a funct i on I attended on Monday night, they showed their appreciation of his efforts by giving him something to remember them by. He was a very act i ve member of the Aus t ra 1 i an Labor Party. A member of my staff commented that nobody would ever have thought that I would be standing here today saying nice things about Peter Tullgren. I think that is a fair indication of the relationship that Peter Tullgren and I and others have had over the past few years. However, it must be said that, in the last 3 or 4 years, Peter has Mr Poole: Matured? Mr SMITH: matured somewhat. Mr Ede: Me 11 owed. . Mr SMITH: Yes. He has mellowed somewhat. If we look at his efforts for the Labor Party in the Northern Territory over the last 10 years, he has made a major contribution. At times, he has served as secretary of the party and also as assistant secretary. He spent 6 years on the administrative committee and, for the last 2 years, he has been the Northern Territory's representative on the National Executive. 9968