Page 3476 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 23 November 2021
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climate change will lead to increased health stress through rising temperatures and extreme weather events. We also know that the healthcare system has an impact on the climate. According to the Health Care Consumers Association:
The health care sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, waste products and natural resource consumption. This threatens our present and future health. In Australia emissions are estimated at over 7% of Australia’s total CO2 emissions.
This means that our health system needs to be responsive to the climate crisis. We would like to see a dedicated plan and approach and a workforce within the Health Directorate who are tasked with ensuring that our health system can be adaptive to this now devastatingly inevitable change, as well as working to ensure that our health system is not contributing unfairly to the emission of greenhouse gases.
The ACT Greens are pleased to support the passing of the appropriation bill for our public health system and are looking forward to continuing to work in partnership with our colleagues in the executive and from the crossbench to ensure that our healthcare system responds and rebuilds from COVID-19 so that we have a stronger and more responsive healthcare system.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Education Directorate—Part 1.4.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (11.15): I rise to comment on the performance and management of education in the ACT. I am going to go back to comments I made in this place earlier this year.
In June I was very proud to present the Canberra Liberals’ vision for education in Canberra. We produced a comprehensive, considered report called Bringing out the best in every child. In it, we identified five key areas to achieve better outcomes for every child. One was to improve academic standards. We identified, through a wide range of independent sources, that there is a need to equip teachers with the tools and support they need to provide strong learning for every student in every year of schooling. We also need a focused curriculum, streamlined and dedicated to literacy and numeracy foundations.
The second point was to create real opportunity. That is about making equity of access a reality for every student, regardless of their background or ability, and creating environments that bring out the best in every child.
The third was reducing bullying and violence. We need to work with our schools, communities and families to make our schools safer for students and teachers, and to create positive cultures in every school. A report in the Canberra Times on 20 June stated that staff reported nearly 1,000 safety incidents a month in February and March. Of these, more than 800 in each month involved violence. In an ACT inquiry submission in 2019, the ACT Parents and Citizens Association told the committee that the rate of bullying had become a concern to the majority of ACT students, with
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