Page 4707 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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new early childhood schools have been opened. The state-of-the-art P-10 Kingsford Smith school has welcomed its first students and construction has begun on a secondary college for the people of Gungahlin.
Labor has completed a major investment in the facilities inside the classroom too, with the completion of the rollout of fibre-optic cable to all secondary schools. The most recent budget delivered funding for an additional 70 teachers in our public schools. This will deliver on the government’s election promise to reduce average class sizes in every single year of schooling. And now the government is pursuing the biggest revolution in education for a decade—it has just been completed this minute—“earn or learn”, based on the proposition that every young Canberran aged 17 or under must be at school, in training or in a job.
Good health is the other gift a good government can offer. In the first year of this term the government has opened new operating theatres at our two public hospitals, opened a satellite breast screen clinic and is in the final stages of design work for the brand-new women’s and children’s hospital. They are all part of a billion-dollar health rebuild to serve Canberrans today and tomorrow. Over the course of the year the government has embarked on consultation for other crucial elements of this rebuild, including the walk-in clinics and a new mental health precinct.
In response to the global swine flu pandemic, the government delivered 34,300 vaccinations by the end of October and operated dedicated flu centres at the Canberra Hospital and Calvary for the duration of the winter flu season.
A new step-up, step-down mental health facility has been opened at Lyneham, mental health training has been funded for emergency services workers and teachers, and the ACT mental health services plan 2009-14 has been released.
During the year a new equipment hire service was opened for children and young people with a disability. Eight new speech therapists have been employed and new therapy playgroups have been established for children with a disability.
Labor believes that working men and women are entitled to a life that balances work, family responsibilities and leisure. In the first year of this term, Labor has boosted paid public sector maternity leave by four weeks, to 18 weeks, making the ACT government’s scheme the most generous public sector scheme in the country. Paid bonding leave has been doubled to two weeks.
In response to the global financial crisis, Labor has established a mortgage relief program to hold out a hand to Canberra families at risk of losing their homes due to factors beyond their control. Designed in consultation with finance providers, financial counsellors and the community sector, the program gives families a breathing space when temporary unemployment or major illness puts their home in jeopardy.
Labor is always alert to the needs of the most vulnerable in our community and in the past year has employed more front-line case managers for our care and protection services. A major recruitment campaign in the first months of the term resulted in the employment of dozens of additional case workers.
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