Page 213 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 December 2016
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Canberra is a growing city. We are growing by 5,000 people every year and soon we will be a city of around 500,000 people. This means we need to plan now for a future that includes more people and more families in our wonderful territory. My priorities across my portfolios will focus on this challenge and the multiple opportunities it opens up.
In each of my portfolios I will support the government’s broader agenda to ensure Canberra is a prosperous, dynamic and sustainable city that supports every member of the community to reach their potential. The outcomes for each of my portfolios will support the government’s broader agenda, deliver on election commitments and parliamentary agreement items and deliver the organisational and service reform necessary to provide a high quality, responsive, and sustainable level of service to the community.
In each portfolio there is considerable opportunity to innovate and partner with private and community organisations to provide improved services and greater value for taxpayers as well as use data to drive reform and improve service delivery. I have asked directors-general to ensure these are central to achieving strategic outcomes in each portfolio.
I have also asked my directors-general to ensure a community-focused approach to each portfolio, notably in Health and Transport and City Services. In simple terms, health services will be focused on patients, and Transport and City Services will be focused on our passengers and customers. I will also be seeking to improve the community’s access to information in a number of ways, including through the development of citizen apps and the use of geospatial data.
Health provides vital services to our community and our region, especially as it grows and as our community ages. We have highly skilled, dedicated staff and strong partnerships across the private and community health sectors. It is my intention to strengthen these partnerships and to make new ones, and we will deliver more services as we continue to make sure Canberrans live long and healthy lives.
Transport Canberra and City Services is a new organisation but with a long and important history in delivering essential services across our city. Canberrans rely upon these services every day. No other arm of government touches so many people’s lives on a daily basis than the work of TCCS. Its asset base is a testament to its impact on the infrastructure and amenity of the city. I have asked TCCS to develop an approach to preventative maintenance of its living and built asset base to ensure the future sustainability of Canberra’s essential city infrastructure and minimise the future burden on the ACT budget.
The higher education, research and training portfolio is exciting, and the alignment of training with the higher education sector will provide enormous economic and social opportunities. The government can play an important enabling role with the sector, combining its strengths to benefit the institutions and help them to attract staff, students and investment to the ACT. The ACT government also makes large investments in research. This needs to be better understood to maximise its value for the government, for the sector and for the community.
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