Page 2100 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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MR RATTENBURY: I will need to take that question on notice for Mr Wall. There have been two incidents: one at the Athllon Drive depot of TAMS and one at the Holder depot. Both those incidents caused considerable damage. TAMS was certainly investigating whether these might be covered by insurance; I have not had an update on that recently.
Certainly the incident at the Holder depot was particularly unstrategic on the part of the activists if they were seeking to have an impact on the kangaroo cull—all they did was damage equipment that was used by City Services for cleaning the city. This resulted in a delay in the cleaning of various shopping centres, public toilets and other public amenities around the city.
Emergency services—Gungahlin
MS BERRY: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Minister, could you please outline for the Assembly how the 2014-15 budget provides for the future use of the Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Berry for the question. $450,000 has been provided for over the next two financial years in the current budget to examine the future use of the Gungahlin joint emergency services centre to meet the needs of the ongoing growth of the Gungahlin district.
The JESC accommodates currently the ACT Fire & Rescue Service at Gungahlin station, along with the ACT Ambulance Service Gungahlin station, the ACT Policing station, as well as facilities for the ACT State Emergency Service and the relevant ACT Rural Fire Service brigade, the Gungahlin brigade.
At the time that the JESC was first opened in 1994, ACT Policing serviced a patrol area of approximately 5,000 residents. The ACT Policing section within the facility operated as a shopfront. It was staffed between 7 am and 11 pm each day. Since that time the population of Gungahlin has grown to approximately 65,000 residents. Obviously, demand for policing services has grown as well during that time. The station now operates as a 24/7 facility. It has a force of 37 members currently stationed at the JESC on a roster basis.
There have been a number of upgrades in order to increase the capacity of the existing Gungahlin station and improve work flow for policing officers in that station, with the most recent works completed last year. These works have provided relief for police operations, but we will continue to see capacity challenges with the existing station facility as the number of police required for the Gungahlin district continues to grow as the population continues to grow.
The government has provided $450,000 to allow us to undertake a feasibility and due diligence study on the future requirements for ACT Policing and the ESA as a whole at the current JESC. This will allow us to make informed and detailed decisions as to what future capital investments are needed to address the accommodation pressures for ACT Policing and other agencies within the ACT Emergency Services Agency over the short to medium term.
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