Page 4665 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 31 October 2017
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refugees and asylum seekers to improve their English language skills and their chances of employment. This is being done through expanded English language programs and practical assistance to gain meaningful and sustained employment through local employment pathways. In September I announced the membership of our newly established Multicultural Advisory Council. The council will provide an opportunity for members of Canberra’s culturally and linguistically diverse community to take the lead on issues that affect them and their communities. It will ensure that the voices and aspirations of all people within the multicultural community are heard.
In recent weeks I had the privilege of participating in a number of sessions of a deliberative democracy process to develop a new carers strategy for the ACT. Many of the people involved were carers, and their stories were moving, confronting and uplifting. Many of the participants talked about how the process of putting them, as people with lived experience, at the centre of policy development had renewed their faith that positive change could be achieved. This is an innovative example of the government’s social inclusion agenda, an agenda which aims to enhance and support our strong and fair community where all voices are heard and all Canberrans are empowered to participate. I want to acknowledge the significant contribution that approximately 50,000 carers make to our community. I look forward to sharing the vision, outcomes and priorities developed by the carers voice panel with my cabinet colleagues and the community and building on those to deliver a new ACT carers strategy.
The ACT government continues to review and adapt its approaches to ensure that we have the best measures in place to continue to protect children and vulnerable people from the risk of sexual, physical, emotional or financial harm or neglect. The ACT government has just completed the scheduled legislative review of the Working with Vulnerable People Act. The review considered government and community feedback, policy and legislative issues and recommendations to improve existing pre-employment screening schemes. Many of the recommendations have positioned the ACT to deliver on the royal commission’s recommendations, and we continue to participate in work to progress national standards.
There is no question that every worker has the right to work in a safe and healthy workplace. Every family should expect to see their loved ones come home from work safe and sound every day. While we still have more work to do in reducing serious workplace injuries, a recent independent actuarial review of the 2015-16 workers compensation data reveals a reduction of almost 19 per cent in the serious injury frequency rate over a three-year period.
In the ACT public sector, work injury numbers are also trending downwards. In 2016-17 the number of work injuries was four per cent lower than in 2015-16 and 13 per cent lower than in 2014-15. To build on these promising trends, we will invest $1.4 million over the next four years for enhancements to return to work and retraining services for our public sector workers. The design of the funded initiatives is being informed by a detailed consultation with public sector unions and experts in the field of injury management, which was conducted throughout 2016.
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