Page 2105 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 May 2009
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they have to wait for hours and hours in the cold, heat or late at night. This same taxi service is exploited by the airport but not supported, and some have argued that 100 more cab licences would solve the problem. But anyone who knows the industry will tell you that this is not necessarily the solution.
At a more concrete level, let us think about roads. We need transit lanes to be incorporated in road duplication. We need bus priority lanes at key intersections. We need park-and-ride facilities built as a matter of priority.
One million dollars for buses is a small investment when you compare it to the multimillion dollars on new road projects. In fact, new capital works receives only $1 of investment in clean transport infrastructure for approximately $27 spent on roads, highways and feasibility assessments for even more roads in the future. This stands in stark contrast to the Victorian government who revealed plans to direct $2 of investment in clean transport infrastructure for every $1 on spending on roads. This is the sort of thinking we need to permeate down to the heart of ACT government and, indeed, across Canberra. If we are to have a truly sustainable transport plan in place, we need to get momentum outside as well as inside the Assembly.
The Greens are pleased to see the ACT government is facilitating the very important federal government investment to increase the public housing supply in the ACT, which will provide both a much-needed service to those less fortunate in our community and work for those in the local building industry.
The Greens are also pleased to see increases in a number of health care programs, particularly those which partly fulfil some of the health provisions in the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement. This includes the initial two-year funding for mental health training for emergency service workers and teachers—these are frontline workers—and an increase of $8.4 million over four years in funding for mental health services. Half of this allocation is going to community sector mental health programs, and the Greens will continue to push for recurrent funding following the initial pilot programs.
While these are good beginnings and many community organisations are celebrating these achievements, our agreement sought an increase in mental health funding to 12 per cent of overall health funding and a shift of resources towards the community-based recovery part of mental health, to make up 30 per cent of mental health’s funding. There is a lot further to go and we will continue to work with the government and community to implement the agreement.
The government has made an important commitment of resources to the bricks and mortar of health care and technological infrastructure for a high-quality, responsive acute sector. The development of effective electronic health systems is also an important way of empowering consumers of health care. However, to see the best use of these, we need a vision for health care which directs more resources to maintaining wellness, to reduce the need to access acute services, and which creates strong, supported pathways out of the acute sector.
Expanded community and consumer engagement in improving these pathways is vital. This budget lays some foundations for these pathways. The $3 million funding over
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