Page 2770 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 1993
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The survey results represent the first comprehensive data on the proportion of the community which use ACTION services. Around two-thirds of Canberra's households have at least one member who uses ACTION and, of these households, 40 per cent have members who use the service between five and seven days a week. The report also indicates that, on a proportional basis, Belconnen respondents use ACTION services the most. The busiest of our shopfronts is Civic, servicing the large working population in the city and handling a significant amount of business from Weston Creek and Woden Valley. The findings on keeping public places clean suggest that areas around shopping centres and parks should be the top priority. The report provides a comprehensive breakdown on perceptions of community safety. It indicates that less than a third of respondents felt that community safety was a major problem in Canberra. The report, however, points to particular forms of community safety and regions in Canberra where clearly there are concerns and where householders believe that attention is warranted.
Data on participation in organised sport suggests a need to target future programs at getting more adults actively involved in sport as competitors. It was pleasing to see that there is broad equality in sport participation between females and males. The findings on the ACT health services suggest that, of those people who used the services in the past year, 46 per cent regarded the service quality as high, 34 per cent as average and 20 per cent as low. The services with the highest profile were community nursing and Calvary Hospital in-patient services.
Madam Speaker, the householder survey plays an important role in allowing the people of Canberra to participate in the future planning and management of the ACT. It is a cost-effective means of obtaining information on the community's use of and views on ACT government services. It also provides a means of informing the community on the range of ACT government services as well as on policies being pursued by the Government. The success of the survey this year indicates continuing community support for this type of consultation process. The survey will continue to be a part of the Government's consultation program in the future, with the next survey to be held in 1995. Madam Speaker, copies of the report will be made available throughout the ACT Library Service and for sale to the public through ACT government shopfronts from Monday, 30 August, at a cost of $8. I present the report and a copy of this statement. I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MR DE DOMENICO (3.20): Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party looks forward to having a good look at this current survey. I want to make a couple of comments on previous surveys. The 1991 survey of ratepayers and Housing Trust tenants, I think it was called, had a very good response rate. Let us have a look at what those people had to say. In relation to ACTION buses, for example - this is the 1991 survey - almost 60 per cent of respondents were not using ACTION because of the need to catch two or more buses and the travel time involved. This was significantly higher, according to the survey, in Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Weston Creek. To give the lie to the claim of the social justice argument, Madam Speaker - that is, that it is mainly low income earners who use ACTION - it was the case that 58 per cent of Housing Trust tenants mainly travel to work by car. That is an interesting result of that survey as well.
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