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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 5 Hansard (1 May) . . Page.. 1311 ..

We will be providing a $5 million boost for minor new works to enhance the learning and working environments for student and teachers in a range of older schools. High schools will particularly benefit from this program. Non-government schools will benefit from an additional funding of $300,000 a year to meet increasing demand on the non-government school interest subsidy scheme. Some $650,000 a year will also be provided to enhance the standard of maintenance of sports grounds, including Manuka Oval, to ensure that playing surfaces remain functional, safe and sustainable. The government will also provide an additional $1 million for heath and community services purchased by the government from non-government organisations.

We are taking two very significant measures to help ease the pressure on our public hospitals. We will abolish the hospital cost efficiency dividend, at a cost of $21 million over three years. This will take considerable financial pressure off our public hospitals, allowing them to focus better on patient care. The second initiative will see the development of a convalescent service for post-hospital care. Some $3.2 million will be provided over four years for the development of a range of options to meet the needs of older people and others immediately after discharge from hospital. The program will fill a gap in the provision of health and support services and build on existing partnerships within the service provider community.

As I mentioned earlier, we will not solve the crime problem until we solve the drug problem. We have allocated an additional $260,000 a year to help cope with demand for public methadone places and provide new pharmacotherapy treatments as they become available. This will include the establishment of a satellite clinic on the northside of Canberra. Some $0.5 million a year has been set aside to enhance existing drug and alcohol services to ensure a high-quality service for the treatment of clients. A similar amount has been set aside for a four-bed residential withdrawal service in association with the Ted Noffs Foundation youth residential rehabilitation service.

Policing services in Canberra will be enhanced, with an additional $1.5 million allocated for extra police. Of this more than $1 million a year will be provided for 10 additional police to control the Gungahlin area. The patrol will operate as part of North District and will be the priority response mechanism for Gungahlin. In addition, $500,000 a year will be provided to increase ACT policing's task force capacity. A street light safety program will also be carried out at a cost of $0.5 million in the budget year.

We will provide Canberrans with a customer hotline facility for services provided by the Department of Urban Services. This initiative will improve the handling of complaints and provide assistance with the department's broad range of services.

The city will also benefit from a $200,000 a year graffiti reduction program for private property. This builds on the success achieved in removing graffiti from public assets under the government's graffiti removal youth employment program over the past three years. There has been some transfer of graffiti into the private sector, and this program will target that.

Some $2.5 million has been provided over four years to continue the program of rehabilitation and upgraded maintenance to public infrastructure. This program upgrades the appearance and safety of our roads and public spaces with activities such as tree

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