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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 9 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 3177 ..

MR STANHOPE: I am pleased to present the government's fourth legislation program. During the past 18 months, the government has made many significant achievements and accomplished substantial reforms but there remain social, mental, and economic challenges to be addressed. Chief among these is the rebuilding of Canberra and the continued recovery from the devastating January 2003 bushfires.

To build on the government's achievements for improving Canberra and to maintain the bushfire recovery process, the focus of the program will be towards making Canberra an even safer, stronger, and more confident city with an inclusive community. The government will do this by maintaining its consultative, considered and responsible approach while, at the same time, working in partnership with the community to meet concerns and deliver quality services.

Improved financial management and governance of the territory will also continue to be a focus, with the government's management to date demonstrated through the ACT's ongoing good economic performance. In the time available, I can comment on some of the proposed legislation.

As I indicated earlier, the key government priority is to continue the rebuilding of the city following this year's bushfires and to assist fire-affected people. In this regard, significant measures have already been introduced and the government recently launched a series of new initiatives to provide support to people to carry through to the next phase of the recovery process.

The Appropriation Bill 2003-2004 (No 2), introduced last week by the Treasurer, will provide additional funding to help people rebuild their homes and communities. It will also enable additional bushfire-related measures to be put in place, including an increased capacity to respond to fires-as identified by the McLeod inquiry. Additionally, the government, in its response to the inquiry report, will review emergency management arrangements and seek legislation changes where appropriate.

The government also introduced last week the Financial Management Amendment Bill 2003 (No 2) to legislate principles of improved fiscal management. As outlined by the Treasurer when presenting the bill, it provides for a number of amendments to improve transparency and accountability, such as including in the territory budget a mid-year budget review and pre-election update.

Of course, responsible financial management sometimes requires a government to make tough decisions. One of these was the government's announcement of the wind-up of Totalcare. That organisation has cost Canberra millions of dollars since its corporatisation. The Treasurer has announced that the government will proceed to put the wind-up into effect.

Mr Speaker, the government is committed to improving entitlements for workers. An amendment to the Annual Leave Act 1973 will remove the requirement for employees to work minimum average weekly hours before qualifying for annual leave, improving entitlements for part-time workers, including those who work part time to balance work and family commitments.

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