Page 178 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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with the Safe Schools Coalition to ensure their valuable work continues in Canberra schools because teachers were asking for these resources in order to effectively support student welfare.
There are alternative views by others on this program, but I am pleased to say that support for the program has come from the New South Wales Liberal MLA Bruce Notley-Smith, who has said that critics of the program should:
… go to the website and have yourself a look, spend hours trawling through it ... and then come back and see and tell us specifically [what] they have a problem with.
Unfortunately Canberra Liberals such as Senator Zed Seselja have seen fit to attack this important anti-bullying tool and I hope to see a firm rejection of that view from those opposite in their support for the safe schools program today.
Of course, no person should be subject to harassment, whether it is in a school or whether they are accessing health care. That is why we supported legislation to declare exclusion zones around approved abortion facilities where photography and video, harassing, threatening or intimidating behaviour are prohibited, continuing our history of recognising the autonomy of women and allowing them the freedom which should naturally be their right. Women in the ACT still have more freedom to make their own medical decisions than women anywhere else in the country.
Moved initially as a private member’s motion by Minister Rattenbury and strongly supported by the Labor Party, exclusion zones are a proportionate response to the problem of harassment, which recognises that when women have made their choice they should not have to be intimidated, ashamed and humiliated while they are at their most vulnerable by those that disagree with them. It is also an example of how our two parties have worked together in the past to deliver the progressive change our city needs and how we will work together over the next four years to support the most disadvantaged people in our community.
The ACT government is committed to delivering an integrated transport system that is accessible and affordable for all Canberrans, whether it is light rail from Gungahlin to Woden or more rapid bus services, and also our commitment to active travel. The ACT was the first government in Australia to create a supportive regulatory framework for ride-sharing services, making personalised transport services cost-effective for Canberrans for whom taxis were too expensive and inconvenient, and fostering competition in the ride service industry. The ACT government is also leading the way on this issue and broader economic reform, reducing stamp duty to make homes more affordable for Canberrans and abolishing insurance taxes.
The government’s commitment to a progressive Canberra is reflected in our policy to make our city one of the most sustainable in the world. That is why the ACT Labor government introduced the most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target of any jurisdiction in Australia. We have legislated an emissions reduction target of 40 per cent by 2020 and we have committed to a 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2020. We are already contracting the renewable energy we need to meet this
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