Page 142 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2010
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I turn briefly to corrections. When we look at the amount that we are paying for our prisoners, the amount in the report had us at a rate that is more than in any other jurisdiction in Australia. But from the latest facts we know that that figure has now almost doubled under the management of Simon Corbell, to $504 a day.
For policing, another one of Mr Corbell’s portfolios, in relation to property crime, we have the lowest proportion of investigations finalised within 30 days of the offence becoming known to police. In terms of road safety, we have the poorest results for speeding. And let me turn to some other reports. When it comes to unlawful entry involving the taking of property, we see that, on figures per 100,000, we are the worst in the nation. For motor vehicle theft, that figure again is the worst in the nation. And other theft, on a per capita rate, is amongst the worst in the nation; I think we are only behind WA on that rate.
When we look across my portfolio areas, most importantly health, which affects everybody here in the ACT, we can see that there is no question but that we pay more, we wait longer and we get less—more so than the other states and more so than when this government came to power.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and emergency services) (11.19): I can only reiterate the views that my colleagues on this side of the Assembly have expressed in making the point that the Liberal opposition continually fail to demonstrate any capacity to be consistent in their approach on these matters. They are quite prepared to criticise the government with their views about the performance of various government services. But, when it comes to proposals to actually put in place reform, to try and make things better, they simply refuse them.
My colleague Mr Barr amply demonstrated in the context of education and reform of the education process how every single step that this government has taken to try and reform and improve the delivery of education services in this city has been opposed by the Liberal Party—blocked, hindered, at every step.
It is the same with health, of course, with measures that the government has put in place to try and improve the planning, delivery and coordination of health services, particularly in Canberra’s north in relation to Calvary hospital. Where were the Liberal Party on that? Were they proposing reform? Were they supporting reform? Were they putting in place steps to advocate the need for reform? No; they were simply saying no. They were rejecting. They were opposing. They were opposing for the sake of opposing.
I would like to turn to the issue of emergency services and in particular the criticisms made by Mr Smyth in relation to emergency services. Of course, what Mr Smyth fails to acknowledge about the performance measures in emergency services, and in particular ambulance services, is that different jurisdictions measure performance, and in particular response times, in different ways.
In the ACT we adopt what is considered to be leading best practice where we record response times, and performance against response times, from receipt of the 000 call;
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