Page 2857 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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disappointed that it took so long we are very pleased that there is now an additional lever to promote sustainable building in Canberra. I think it is enough to say that the Greens maintain our support for the charge; we believe that it is a fair and effective charge that delivers revenue to the community in exchange for the extra rights that developers receive.
Again the parliamentary agreement has delivered real outcomes for the people of Canberra. Through the agreement, the Greens have been able to deliver practical initiatives that make our city better, our environment healthier and Canberra more prosperous. The agreement has delivered improved public transport, reduced government greenhouse gas emissions, additional mental health funding and air quality monitoring.
We are very proud of what has been achieved through the agreement over the term of this Assembly. Not everything has been done as well as we would have liked, and certainly we have recognised where things could be improved. The very poor capital spend on public housing and the inaction on waste are particularly disappointing examples. In spite of some disappointments overall, the agreement has made a real difference, not only for government and governance and the big policy questions for the territory, but also for the daily lives of Canberrans.
Let me look at some specific initiatives.
In health and mental health, without doubt one of the biggest challenges facing Canberra is health and our ageing population. Every year, across every jurisdiction, governments lament the increasing strain that ever-growing health costs place on their budgets. What we should also be doing at a time when it is appropriate to spend some additional money is making the long-term investments in health to keep people out of our hospitals in the first place. The reality is that the only way to address this is to invest in preventing people from getting sick—an investment that will, of course, in time, pay for itself.
The Greens very much welcome the additional funding for health care generally and particularly the increased funding for mental health. We welcome the ACT government’s commitment to increase mental health funding by $4.2 million and we hope to see most of those funds directed towards community sector based and run programs.
In last year’s budget the ACT government directed a very large increase in funding to government-provided acute services. But if we are to truly assist people to get out of that cycle of crisis it must direct its new mental health funds towards community-based and run prevention and recovery services.
We would also like to see the government recognise the lack of long-term supported housing in the ACT for people with a serious mental illness. It is vital that people living with a serious mental illness have stable and long-term housing in the community, with 24/7 assistance.
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