Page 2543 - Week 08 - Thursday, 30 August 2007
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and the most significant investment in the fire fleet in the ACT for over a decade. Mr Deputy Speaker, on top of that, of course, as you acknowledged in your comments, there are 10 additional community fire units, a very important additional investment in protecting the urban interface in those high-risk suburbs around Canberra.
We are also continuing to focus on the response and capability of the ACT Ambulance Service. Our ambulance service has the best response times in the country and we want to keep it that way. We have funded $4.9 million over four years for staffing and vehicles. This includes two new intensive care ambulances, front-line response ambulances, and their staff. In addition, there are two very important non-urgent patient transport vehicles, so that we can get people out of hospital when they are ready to leave and facilitate their discharge. That helps with accessibility to beds in the hospital. There is also a specially designed bariatric ambulance for people who are morbidly obese. These are just some of the initiatives in the ESA area.
I turn to the comments by other members on other parts of the justice portfolio, in particular the prison and the remand centre. Again, the government is very pleased that the prison is coming in on budget and on time. We are delivering a state of the art correctional facility for the ACT, one that is absolutely and urgently needed, as the human rights commissioner rightly identified.
I encourage any member who has not visited the Belconnen Remand Centre to do so. I am happy to facilitate a visit for you just so that you can understand the circumstances of the people and the staff who have to operate and be housed in that facility. I think it is disappointing that more members in this place do not take that opportunity so that they can properly understand the circumstances and the conditions at that facility. It is only when you visit it that you can fully appreciate the crowded, cramped, inhumane and antiquated condition of that facility and why it desperately needs to be replaced.
In this year’s budget the government has also made a significant commitment for victims of crime. Victims of crime are often the unrecognised part of the justice system but they are, of course, the people who are most centrally involved and who often carry the biggest burden in managing crime in our community. The government has provided additional funding—over half a million dollars—for victims of crime every year, to be funded through a levy on court-imposed fines and all traffic fines, but not parking infringements. This will raise that money, which will go towards providing additional support to victims of crime through our Victims of Crime Coordinator and the victims support scheme.
I hope this will be only the first step in the further expansion of our program to support victims of crime. They deserve it, the community needs it and the government is very pleased to be providing it, particularly with a focus on victims of sexual crimes. Physical and sexual violence are some of the most abhorrent crimes in our community and ones that can have the most lasting impact on victims of crime. That is why we are focusing on providing additional levels of support.
I have asked my department to provide further recommendations to me on what options are open to the government to further ease the burden of victims of sexual crimes, particularly in terms of giving evidence in court and in facilitating
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