Page 2694 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 10 August 2016
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community health centres also provide important primary care and post-hospital care. They deliver care where people need it and when they need it. They are affordable and accessible, demonstrating how this government has made improving community healthcare options to Canberrans a priority.
In the delivery of high quality, tailored healthcare services to our community ACT Health also has strong community partnerships. These partnerships and service funding agreements are with many wonderful non-government organisations that provide innovative and much-needed health services to people in our community. The government is proud to continue to support these organisations and the vital services they provide to Canberrans every day.
Before I finish I would like to certainly reiterate the words of Minister Corbell and take the time to acknowledge the hardworking and dedicated health professionals right across our health system: the doctors, the nurses, the allied health staff, the health professionals and all the teams that work so hard each day to ensure our community receives the highest level of health care. We also have many volunteers and carers who support the work of our clinicians and I would like to note particularly their contribution as well. I thank them very much for their commitment to our community and the services they deliver every day. I stand with Minister Corbell in commending the health expenditure in this year’s budget.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Housing ACT—Schedule 1, Part 1.11
MS LAWDER (Brindabella) (8.40): It is a pleasure to speak on the housing part of the budget. Firstly I would like to mention the Auditor-General’s report on the maintenance of public housing, which was released in April of this year. The Auditor-General made a number of recommendations, including in relation to the timeliness, effectiveness and maintenance of public housing property. This report, as well as concerns that constituents have brought to my attention over the past few years, was discussed in estimates hearing on 24 June. We spoke about one Housing ACT tenant who said she moved into a new property and there was no phone line connected from the power pole to her house. She spent six months trying to get Housing ACT to organise for the physical telephone wire to be connected to her Housing ACT property.
Another example of poor maintenance of our public housing was when a public housing tenant from Braddon questioned whether their public housing unit and the unit complex as a whole complied with fire safety requirements. This constituent was very concerned for their safety and that of other tenants and, in particular, was concerned that the doors connecting units to the basement car park and the front doors of the units might not be fire safety doors.
Some constituents seem to have trouble getting maintenance issues addressed. One constituent said their experience with Spotless maintenance has been that the contractors they hire to conduct work on a property are usually below standard. They said they are battling Housing to ensure tenants are safe and often feel their requests for help fall on deaf ears, so it is good to be heard.
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