Page 806 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 6 April 2022
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saying is important. If we are really serious about achieving a mode shift in transport and that hierarchy, we need to shift our built environment and our road rules to reflect the priority. We need to make sure that we are valuing people outside a car. Our pedestrians should come first.
The biggest barrier for people wanting to walk, ride or catch public transport in a lot of instances is the road infrastructure. It was designed for the car. It was designed by town planners who were only interested in making it as easy as possible for a car to go as fast as possible, and they did that at the expense of everyone outside the car.
There are so many parts of Canberra which need significant upgrades to road safety, and which need pedestrian priority measures like the one asked for in this petition. We have seen a fair number of emails in my office about a lot of issues like this, from across Belconnen. I am sure we will be raising a lot more issues like this over the next term. I would simply like to recommend the petition to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Work health and safety—psychosocial hazards
Ministerial statement
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Manager of Government Business, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Industrial Relations and Workplace Safety, Minister for Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.18): I wish to make a statement on work health and safety. On 30 March 2021 this Assembly passed a motion calling on improvements to worker safety in relation to psychosocial hazards in the workplace. In September 2021 I was pleased to provide a six-month update on the motion, which spoke to the continued high cost and consequences of mental injuries to workers in the territory.
The November 2021 Safe Work Australia Comparative performance monitoring report showed that the proportion of serious claims due to mental stress in Australia had increased, with national results showing mental stress accounted for 8.6 per cent of workers compensation claims.
The effect of psychological work injury extends far beyond the workplace and workers compensation costs. Psychological injury impacts the health, wellbeing and financial security of workers and their families. I am pleased to have this opportunity to provide members of the Assembly with the final 12-month update on activities underway to support and protect Canberra’s workers.
The ACT government’s response to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work, the national inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces, was tabled in this Assembly in August last year. Of the 55 recommendations in the Respect@Work report, 12 relate directly to state and territory government responsibilities. In its formal response to the Respect@Work report, the ACT government agreed, in full or in principle, to these 12 recommendations. The ACT government remains committed to ongoing whole-of government development and implementation of these 12 recommendations.
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