The Public Service Minister has told ACT Labor members and union delegates they would not always agree with the government on what was achievable but both sides would keep working to give workers better wages and conditions as soon as possible.
Rachel Stephen-Smith acknowledged the right of workers to take industrial action as ACT Labor members voiced their support for higher-than-inflation pay rises for public servants in the territory amid a ballot over a government pay offer.
"Our government respects the right of our workers to take industrial action. And I want to thank all the unions representing ACT public service workers for their engagement in the bargaining process, for fighting for their members and making the case for change," Ms Stephen-Smith told ACT Labor's annual conference on Saturday.
The government was also put on notice over what the Community and Public Sector Union calls chronic underpayments for youth workers at Bimberi, Canberra's youth detention centre, who are not paid for the time it takes before each shift starts to make it through security checks.
The union's regional secretary, Maddy Northam, told ACT Labor's 53rd annual conference the workers deserved to be paid for the time and criticised the government for failing to act sooner.
"The government's bargaining team thought they had solved it by offering a 10-minute daily allowance. Now, this is 40 minutes a day, and they think that's sufficient," Ms Northam said.
"So we are here today saying, hey, Bimberi workers, you wonder why you have an attraction retention issue. Value those young people in our system in the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre."
Ms Stephen-Smith said the government was pretty close to resolving the problem.
"I understand how disappointed the union was with the offer that was made this week. But I also think that does acknowledge that we recognise it is a genuine issue and it genuinely needs to be addressed," she said.
Split votes on giving greater knife-search powers to police, funding electorate offices for members of the Legislative Assembly and abandoning Labor's support for the Hare-Clark electoral system in the ACT were avoided by delegates agreeing to send the contentious motions to the party's branch council.
A motion backed by the Right and moved by one of Treasurer Chris Steel's senior staffers calling on the party to call for the Commonwealth to provide surplus land in the territory to the ACT government for housing at no cost had caused consternation in the Left but found a factional resolution when it was directed to a policy committee for review.
A proposal to end the ACT's annual kangaroo cull was the only motion defeated on the floor.
Environment Minister Suzanne Orr, whose sub-branch was the source of the motion, told delegates no one liked the idea of having to kill kangaroos but the cull was necessary to protect other endangered species.
"We're going to take every measure that we possibly can to make sure what we're doing is as humane as possible. We will continue to look at other options, such as contraception. They do have limitations and they will take time," Ms Orr said.
"While we work through that, we still need to protect our grasslands. So I'll appreciate the motion put forward. ... It is a divisive topic within our community. I'm glad that we've been able to debate it respectfully enough today."
ACT Labor delegates voted in favour of proposals encouraging employers to provide free parking for retail workers, capping the pay of the University of Canberra's vice-chancellor at the same level as the prime minister, and calling for the government to examine a system to introduce enforceable timelines for landlords to repair leased housing.
The notoriously late-running party conference, this year held at QT Canberra, broke with tradition by finishing 15 minutes early.
