Page 1305 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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Once these issues were identified with the new equipment, the manufacturer was called in and asked to rectify them. They have been fully compliant and have rectified those problems. But I say again, and I do not know how many times I need to say it, that at no time has patient safety been compromised, and there have not been any adverse outcomes for patients as a result of these technical issues with the equipment.
The equipment itself is performing well. There are problems with the batteries, and the batteries issue is being addressed. There have been some minor issues with other aspects of the equipment that are essentially small teething problems with its deployment. They are also being worked through.
I say again that the advice from the chief officer, the clinical head of ACT Ambulance Service, is that there have been no adverse patient outcomes. That is confirmed by the union that represents our paramedics delivering the services on the front line.
Economy—business development
MR GENTLEMAN: My question is to the Minister for Economic Development. Minister, can you update members on the government’s support for businesses in the territory, including the implementation of the government’s business development strategy?
MR BARR: I thank Mr Gentleman for the question. The government continues the implementation of our business development strategy. As I have previously noted in this place, the strategy has achieved a number of significant benefits for the territory, not least in continued record levels of employment in the ACT. It was very pleasing to see today that the latest employment figures showed a further 300 Canberrans in employment, taking the number of people employed in the territory to 215,400, which I understand is an all-time record level of employment in the Australian Capital Territory.
Those 300 new jobs in April also continue the very impressive record over more than a decade now where this economy has added 10 new jobs every single day on average. Another 300 jobs in April demonstrates the strength of this economy and certainly ensures that as we go into what we anticipate will be a difficult period flowing from the Liberal Party’s decision to slash and burn at a federal level, particularly in relation to Canberra—we are fairly certain we will be disproportionately targeted—now more than ever we need to continue our focus on economic reform, on taxation reform and ensuring that our policy settings attract new investment into this city.
The example today of IKEA announcing a major investment in Canberra is yet another example of the business development strategy ensuring that Canberra is an attractive place for new investment.
We have recently announced the establishment of the Canberra innovation network, a not-for-profit body that works with all stakeholders to accelerate the rate of innovation in the territory. There have also been a number of other important developments in the implementation of our business development strategy in recent months.
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