Page 2780 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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I am pleased to see there are new initiatives in the budget totalling $155.1 million over four years, focusing on health, education, emergency services and municipal and community services. Members can see that there are also new initiatives on community safety, public housing and targeted assistance measures to support vulnerable households.
To make Canberra a fairer city, Labor has boosted funding for some of the neediest in our community, including Canberrans with a disability, older residents and vulnerable households. I am also pleased to see that there is strong support, through the tax reform, to adjust for transition impacts, particularly on pensioners and older Canberrans. This includes the extension of the pensioner duty concession scheme, the duty deferral scheme and the rates deferral scheme. All these will allow for older Canberrans to make decisions about their housing choices. It will support the government’s objectives around ageing in place, and it will allow older Canberrans to make decisions as to whether they transition to different accommodation.
There is also more funding to improve our court system, for the Street Law outreach legal service and for the Women’s Legal Centre. In this time of difficulty, I am pleased to see the government is still committing $5 million to additional public housing, a singular demonstration of Labor values and our beliefs, and these are the reasons why I became a member of this great party. Education is a high priority for this government, and the record investment in schools, over $900 million per annum, is again proof of our commitment to education in the ACT.
There has been much discussion in this place about our health system today and over time. We have an outstanding health system. However, I know it is important to continue to respond to growing demand, particularly as our population ages. Therefore, I am pleased that the government are investing $1.3 billion in hospitals, and we are ensuring everyone has access to quality and timely emergency care through our additional $9.5 million commitment to the ACT Ambulance Service for new, modern on-board equipment.
This will mean that Canberrans get access to high quality emergency care when they are experiencing the greatest need. We would deliver more acute beds, more hospital-in-the-home beds, an expanded emergency department at the Canberra Hospital, more neonatal services, better community health centres and more mental health services, to name just a few.
This obviously continues Labor’s record investment in our health system. Continuing investment in hospitals and other health services, building world-class facilities and an exceptional health system is definitely the way we need to go, and I am very proud that this government is doing this. All this provides for the needs of our health system into the future.
Of course we need to make sure that we not only respond to Canberrans but to the people in our region. As the Chief Minister and Minister for Health said today, our health system is not a health system that just services the ACT; it services our region as well, which is a very important factor that some of those opposite seem to forget from time to time.
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