Page 738 - Week 02 - Thursday, 12 February 2009
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is outstripping supply and community organisations are doing it tough. They have tried being smart over the years. They have found many efficiencies and they have been working smartly, but regardless, this sort of influx, this increase and demand for community services from these organisations needs to be acknowledged and money needs to go towards addressing that particular issue.
As I have said, we have spent a considerable amount of time in recent days talking about some of the merits of the package and I have just outlined some of them. Ms Burch brought forward a matter of public importance on Tuesday on the importance of stimulating the economy through measures such as the package. Going through the detail and looking at some of the issues, we came up with measures that we did support and that we thought would go some way towards improving things. Mr Seselja moved a motion yesterday which, among other things, called on Mr Stanhope’s government to explain how it would deliver the capital works components of the package on time and on budget. Mr Seselja has again spoken at length about that this morning. This is all about a package which, as I said when I opened my remarks, has yet to pass the Senate and may be amended, depending on deliberations up on the hill today.
We have said that the Greens support a package of this nature and agree that it is timely in view of the global economic crisis. If the $350 million proposed for the ACT filters down, it will have a significant impact in all areas. The proposed funding for the ACT education sector, as I have just said, is welcome. But these very tight time frames are of concern. Those charged with the responsibility of implementing the upgrades need to undertake proper consultation with school boards and parents and citizens groups to make sure that that money is well used, that it is used to address the needs identified by those school communities, not by someone who is quite separate from those school communities.
We have long been calling for increased public investment in social housing. As I have said in the last few days, this is a welcome initiative. With this extra money going into social housing we will go some way to growing our public housing stock. It is part of the Greens-Labor agreement that we will be moving towards 10 per cent of housing stock in the ACT as public housing.
As I mentioned earlier, with the changing climate we need to be looking at energy efficiency design. As I have said, insulation is a great first step but there are many other steps that need to be taken. Mr Rattenbury will talk further about that. We know that houses need to set the standard for all housing in the ACT. This is one way to build green collar jobs as part of developing a green economy. There is already high demand for expertise in the design and construction of energy and water efficient buildings in infrastructure, renovations and retrofits and the installation and maintenance of efficient appliances and machinery. The challenge for government is to put the mechanisms in place to build the technical and trade skills to meet the demand as the ACT hopefully makes the transition to the green economy.
In relation to cash handouts, while it is hoped that these help support the retail sector and ensure jobs are retained, as the Chief Minister and Mr Rudd hope, it is hard to ensure handouts are reinvested in the retail sector and reach those most in need. So that is an issue.
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