Page 3134 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 22 August 2017
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Under the ongoing support for the Actsmart program, funding has been extended to continue the curtain manufacture program for low income households. This program offers free curtains, including their installation, to low income families to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, reduce costs and provide a sense of security and dignity. The program will continue to be run through St Vincent de Paul’s volunteer program.
As we continue to move into the digital era, the ACT government will continue to support the delivery of online tools to help the community to increase their sustainability. The focus in 2017-18 will be the upgrade of the plant selector tool and water right garden tool.
I noted some of the earlier comments in the debate, particularly from Ms Lee. I have taken a number of those comments on board. In particular, in terms of investigations by the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, I can assure you this has been on my radar. I have a number of options that I am considering at the moment and I will shortly seek to discuss those with the commissioner to get the scope of those investigations right. I will be pleased to update the Assembly once I have made those directions.
In conclusion, the initiatives I have outlined today are just a small part of the work that is being done by the directorate in my climate change and sustainability portfolio and does continue to build upon what is a sustained period of commitment to these sorts of policies by the ACT government, which has positioned the ACT as a leader of action on climate change and investment in the sustainability of our city. I believe these budget commitments and the allocation in this year’s budget will continue to ensure that the ACT is moving towards becoming a sustainable city of the future.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
Health Directorate—Part 1.11.
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (4.48): I rise today to speak on behalf of Mrs Jones. Justice health is an area of public policy which is so important to get right. While this area of policy is for a relatively small number of people in our community—those involved in our justice system—it can have large impacts on the community.
We know only too well that this area of policy can be a matter of life and death. Unfortunately, there have recently been two deaths of inmates while in custody at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Sadly, Steven Freeman died while in custody at the AMC. His matter is before the coroner, so I will not make comments about his specific situation. However, I will make some general observations.
Since Mr Freeman’s death, the Minister for Corrections has implemented changes to the methadone program within the prison. The minister has claimed many times that corrections health is not standing still in this area, and that these changes are best practice. The trouble is that there are still many questions about what specific changes
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