Page 3489 - Week 08 - Thursday, 23 August 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
to the people of west Belconnen. Work continues on planning for the Aranda site and also for the Calwell site. Both of these sites require changes to the zoning in the territory plan before they can commence construction. The statutory planning processes are now being undertaken.
There is a further $1.65 million in the budget to undertake due diligence assessments and other improvements for new or upgraded stations in other parts of the city, including options to establish a new ambulance station in the city centre, an ACT fire and rescue station in the Pialligo-Campbell area and the upgrading of a co-located ambulance and fire station facility at Fyshwick. This is the next stage of the government’s comprehensive plan to upgrade and modernise our fire and ambulance stations to meet the needs of a growing city.
The government continues to invest in ambulance services. Ambulance services are the area of our emergency services seeing the greatest growth in demand from the community; as our community ages, requests for ambulance services are sitting at around nine to 10 per cent per annum. In the 2012-13 budget the government has committed a further $13½ million over four years to deliver 15 new front-line staff for our ambulance services, two new additional emergency ambulances and the complete replacement of cardiac monitor-defibrillators for the front-line ambulance fleet.
The additional front-line staff will increase the minimum number of 24/7 emergency ambulance crews from seven to nine—one of the most significant increases in ambulance services in the history of self-government. This first additional crew commenced in March 2012. The second crew is scheduled to commence on 26 June this year, increasing the capacity of ACTAS to respond to the needs of the community. Funding in this year’s budget further increases the minimum number of 24/7 emergency ambulance crews from nine to 10, as we continue to invest and provide the ambulance services our city needs.
Turning to crime and policing, which is always an area of significant concern and interest for our community, I am pleased to say that it has been a Labor government that has delivered some of the most significant reductions in property crime in the history of self-government. Let us have a look at some of these figures. In the March 2000 ACT criminal justice statistical profile we have seen consistent decreases in a wide range of reported property and violent crimes. These were confirmed, by the way, in the most recent statistical profile which I tabled yesterday.
Burglary, break and enter are down 25 per cent, weapons offences are down 24 per cent, robbery is down 10 per cent, property damage is down 16 per cent and assaults intending to cause injury are down eight per cent. These are great results. My congratulations go out to ACT Policing and its volume crime targeting team on the dedicated work they are doing as a result of the resources provided by this Labor government to improve policing in the territory.
It has been Labor over the past 10 years that has invested in policing and boosted police numbers by over 120 front-line officers. That has been our commitment to improving policing services in the territory, and it is delivering results. For the first time in over a decade motor vehicle theft in the ACT has fallen below the national
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video