Page 1937 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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silent. Our schools have a crucial role in this task. I am proud to announce that as part of this budget, ACT government schools will be benefited to the tune of $600,000 to ensure that our government schools have social and emotional learning programs in place that confront these issues.
The programs will be embedded in every part of the children’s learning by training our teachers about domestic violence and what they can do to support students in their class. We will also create online resources to give students and members of our school community who may be victims of domestic violence the tools to seek help and support.
I was very pleased to announce also the upgrades for CIT and a new campus and facility for CIT in Tuggeranong. CIT is a fantastic institution. I want to make sure that it continues to deliver the outstanding outcomes that it has a proven history of delivering.
This budget also delivers a program of suburban renewal to ensure that Canberra remains the most livable city in the world. Arts and cultural facilities play a major role in that. The Canberra theatre, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, will benefit from an upgrade to this wonderful facility.
In respect of emergency services, it is important that governments ensure that our community is kept safe. Building on the 2013-14 budget, our hardworking and dedicated emergency services responded to around 56,000 requests for help. The ambulance demand alone has increased by around a third since 2009, with ambulance crews now travelling an extra 500,000 kilometres a year. This budget gives extra funding to ensure that our front-line firefighters, paramedics and police officers are well equipped to keep Canberra safe.
There has been a rise in the fire and emergency service levy, but this is because the commonwealth government refuses to pay the true cost of delivering emergency services to their assets. We are proud of being the national capital but the significant presence of commonwealth government agencies, national institutions and international embassies means that we must be trained and equipped for a range of possibilities. It is time, I believe, that our Liberal colleagues in this place spoke to their federal counterparts to stop this short-changing in the ACT Emergency Services.
In Tuggeranong we see an investment through the new CIT campus. There is a $6.5 million investment in a specialist centre for science and technology at Caroline Chisholm School. We will see a renew and refresh across Kambah, Erindale and Tuggeranong town centres. We will see more mowing, tree pruning and graffiti removal across our suburbs.
In closing, Mr Hanson drew people’s attention to the Canberra Times this morning, so I thought I too would finish with some extracts from the Canberra Times. I refer to the editorial today and I will read some of it. It states:
… rising rates, and land taxes, are a crucial part of the government’s strategy from which it must not shy … Yet it’s worth reminding ourselves why the then
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