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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2275 ..

If you are going to do something, you might as well do it properly. In fact, I wonder whether it is only going to cost that much extra when it finally comes to doing four lanes. I suspect that the cost will blow out even further, which is all the more reason to do it now. The chief executive of the Department of Urban Services told the committee:

…a two-lane road would provide an extraordinarily good service to people in that part of Canberra for something like 22 hours a day. It will slow down at peak periods…

Again, why not do it properly now? We know that it is going to need four lanes. Let’s do that now. Accordingly, Mrs Dunne and I did not agree that there should be just two lanes and we have put in the report our recommendation, which I commend to the Assembly, that there should be four lanes.

We had some discussion in relation to Gungahlin and, indeed, other town centres and recommended that the government develop plans to establish departmental offices in town centres. Mr Speaker, as I said earlier, we discussed the limousine industry and made a recommendation in that regard, recommendation 31. I commend the recommendation to the government.

Turning to the environment portfolio, which my colleague Mrs Dunne and others probably will talk about more than I, there were a number of recommendations. I stress again the need for meaningful targets. In recommendation 35, we say that the minister should ensure that, where environmental programs have targets, they are reported on in a meaningful manner that allows for comparison over time.

In relation to justice and community safety, I commend to members recommendation 38, which refers to reporting requirements for watchdog agencies. Again, other committees have commented on that. We discussed with the Office of the Community Advocate its concerns about the failure of family services to comply with its statutory obligations to ministers and other relevant persons. We note that the Standing Committee on Community Services and Social Equity, in its report on the 2002-03 annual and financial reports, recommended that the government amend the annual report directions to provide for agencies with an external scrutiny function to have a specific section on issues of significant concern regarding the performance of other agencies, as outlined in certain paragraphs of that report. We endorse that and we recommend that the government implement recommendation 2 of that committee’s report.

There was some discussion, as one would expect, on the construction of a prison and significant discussion in relation to police. We were concerned about the low level of experience within policing, with approximately 62 per cent of the officers having less than five years experience. We note that, like other industries, the police have a challenge with an ageing work force and recruitment is needed to deal with this issue. That contributes to the police force having a high percentage of officers with less than five years experience.

The committee was also concerned about police numbers in the ACT. Whilst the committee had varying views there, it was concerned about that. The committee recommended that the government explore strategies to increase police numbers. I think

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