Page 2079 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
of a training package to assist its introduction; an additional $40,000 in payments to foster carers to increase foster care rates for adolescents, a particularly welcome move in the International Year of the Family; and an additional $580,000 for home and community care services in recognition of the increasing demand for these services.
Further initiatives that I welcome include the provision of an extra 200 additional part-time equivalent student places at the Canberra Institute of Technology; the introduction of weekly garbage services and fortnightly recyclable collections from wheeled bins provided to homes throughout Canberra; the upgrading of the science and technology areas of eight secondary schools and the refurbishing of existing school facilities; the provision of over 500 additional long-day care and out-of-school-hours care places over three years under the national child-care strategy; additional funding of $150,000 in youth services grants to meet the emerging needs of young people; additional funds to enable the Canberra Tourism Commission to be a full partner of the Australian Tourism Commission's Partnership Australia plan, thus enabling the ACT to have better access to cooperative international tourism marketing; the establishment of the position of Victims of Crime Coordinator as a point of contact between the victim of crime and the criminal justice system; and an additional $150,000 a year in funding for the Legal Aid Commission to enhance services provided to people seeking restraining orders and protection orders.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as I said earlier, I believe that the ACT Government's budget is reasonable. However, I have not said that it is perfect. Many community organisations, such as the ACT Council of Social Services and the P and C Council, would support my view that more could have been done. While I welcome the fact that the budget maintains funding levels for education, I believe that initiatives in government schooling could have gone further, particularly as the Government has been able to increase funding to the non-government school sector by 1.7 per cent per student. I would also like to have seen funding of further initiatives for government high schools so that greater account could be taken of the needs of adolescent students. The ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations in their submission to the Government for last year's budget - a submission which the council regards as still being current - recommended the establishment of the ACT's own priority schools program to address disadvantage. This remains unfunded. Drop-out rates in secondary colleges have also not been addressed. The bus subsidies for government school students attending out-of-area government schools and for non-government school students still remain. The Government says that its highest priority is education; however, this does not appear to be reflected adequately in the 1994-95 budget.
In conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker, in my speech this afternoon I have tried to assess the Government's budget even-handedly. While more might have been done, I believe that overall the Government's budget strategy is reasonable, and I commend the Government for a number of its key initiatives which I have mentioned.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .