Page 481 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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Madam Speaker, as you are aware, health care and social services are major employers in the ACT, employing nearly 20,000 people. That is why continued investment in our health system through the health infrastructure program, or HIP, is vital, as it is not only enabling and informing the sustainable expansion of the health workforce into the future but continues to generate jobs within the construction industry, including jobs relating to the design and construction of HIP projects and the planning, management and coordination of related activities.
At the end of January 2014, over 2,350,000 man hours had been invested in HIP construction projects in the ACT, many of which are in Ginninderra, including minor refurbishments of the pre-rinse sterilising unit at the Calvary hospital, new critical care inpatient unit with four additional beds for intensive care at Calvary Hospital, expansion of the emergency department at Calvary hospital and, of course, the Belconnen Community Health Centre.
I congratulate the government on its commitment to progressing HIP programs, which include the University of Canberra public hospital. That is very important to the people of Ginninderra and the whole of the ACT. The completed project has potential in the long term of promoting excellence in education by attracting more students, more researchers and more academics to the city. World-class educational institutions such as the University of Canberra and the Bruce CIT campus will be partnering with us in this attempt to improve our health system by responding to the large number of older people in the ACT and the numerous health challenges we all face. Groundbreaking research has already started, and that will see huge benefits not only to the people of the ACT but to our region.
I join my colleagues in calling on the government to continue progressing other important transformational projects, including: the city to the lake project, which we have heard extensively about this morning; the capital metro project, which has been talked about before; the city plan; facilitating investments in renewable energy; and, of course, the Riverview development, which we have just been talking about.
I will quickly say something about the Riverview development. I think Mr Rattenbury said his eyes were opened when he saw this development and realised that all urban development that happens somewhat distant from the city is not a threat to the environment necessarily. As we know, this project has been under active consideration by the ACT government. Currently the Land Development Agency is progressing the rezoning of the land to enable development of the area identified under the heads of agreement, with the first 200 blocks of land projected to be released in 2015.
There is no doubt that the Riverview development will transform the west Belconnen region as we know it. It is a fine example of a developer working with government to achieve greater environmental outcomes as well as suburban development. I encourage everyone to visit the display centre at the Kippax shops or to log on to their website. This development coupled with other stimulus measures the Chief Minister recently announced and talked about yesterday will continue to create construction jobs in the ACT and provide certainty to industry.
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