Page 4591 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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MS PORTER: Mr Speaker, a supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Thank you. Minister, if there has not been a significant request for this fund, is this not an indication of how successful the government’s financial management of the GFC and its effect on the people has been?
MS GALLAGHER: I think Ms Porter goes to the point, which is that the mortgage relief fund is part of a range of measures that this government has introduced around supporting people with housing affordability and for those that are in financial stress. Of course, the most important thing that the government can do is provide the environment for a strong economy. That is exactly what we have done over the past two years, while those opposite—the wreckers opposite, the opposition for opposition’s sake—have twice voted down a budget that has provided that stability and that security to the people of the ACT, with unemployment now at three per cent and with state final demand growing faster than any other economy around the country.
That is what this government has provided—stability, security and financial responsibility. At the same time that we have been doing that we have been looking after those who are most disadvantaged and providing safety net schemes for those people who are experiencing extreme housing and mortgage stress. That is what this scheme is meant to do. If you opposite think that the only measure of success is that you have lots more uptake of the mortgage relief scheme, I think you have got your priorities wrong.
ACT Policing—recruitment
MS HUNTER: My question is to the minister for police and relates to turnover rates in ACT Policing and the structure of our police force. Minister, to combat the high turnover rates, there has recently been a recruitment drive to find police officers who want to live and work in Canberra on a long-term basis. Can you quantify the turnover rate and how the recruitment drive is progressing?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Hunter for the question. In relation to the interest to date in the recruitment drive, there has been strong interest. I think over 100 expressions of interest have occurred since that campaign was launched, but I am happy to provide more updated figures from ACT Policing.
In relation to the level of turnover, that is something on which I would need to seek some advice from the Chief Police Officer. I will do that and provide that to the member. But I think it is desirable that ACT Policing continues to emphasise the distinct role that it plays in community policing. It is a unique part of the AFP, responsible for community policing. No other part of the AFP performs that function. And it is desirable that we target people who live in our community, who are part of our community, to become police for our community. That is not to say that people who come from other places and join the AFP and subsequently are posted to the
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