Page 22 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 2018

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continue improvements to staff welfare programs that ensure our front-line staff are equipped to handle the pressures of their roles.

We will continue to provide the highest standards of emergency services through support for projects within the ESA strategic reform agenda. Those include progressing reforms to the ESA communications centre and releasing crews to front-line services; implementing the leadership framework and modernising service delivery for ACT Ambulance Service staff; and upgrading stations to provide personal privacy and dignity upgrades and to plan stations that provide strategically located emergency services for the ACT.

In the Justice and Community Safety Directorate our security and emergency management officers will continue to work with partner agencies and other governments to focus on enhancing the ACT’s public safety CCTV network through continued investment in new technology, footprint expansion and collaboration; and building community resilience to natural disasters through investment in programs and projects on disaster resilience policy, including developing a five-year disaster mitigation framework.

The ACT community is growing, and Canberra’s government and community expectations of emergency services and police continue to evolve. That is why this government has invested in the future of ACT Policing, with $2.1 million to review current operating models and infrastructure in the light of the ACT’s growing population.

Other specific priorities for ACT Policing are set out in my 2017-18 ministerial directions. They include continuing to focus on preventing, disrupting and responding to the evolving threat of violent extremism and terrorism, with a particular focus on crowded places; strengthening the ACT’s response to domestic and family violence in appropriate and culturally sensitive ways and supporting the efforts of the Coordinator-General for Family Safety; working proactively and innovatively with the government to reduce and prevent alcohol-fuelled violence, including enforcing liquor laws; continuing the commitment to early intervention and diversion strategies, including restorative justice, with a focus on vulnerable groups; and improving road safety through particular emphasis on vulnerable road users and combating antisocial and dangerous behaviours.

While Canberra remains a very safe city to live in, we are not immune to the presence and activities of serious and organised crime, including criminal gangs and those who travel from interstate. The ACT government is strongly committed to responding to this type of criminal activity, and this is a top priority for ACT Policing. In 2018 we can expect to see ACT Policing’s Taskforce Nemesis continue to achieve success in disrupting OMCG activity, assisted by the government’s $6.4 million investment in additional staff and physical and electronic capabilities. In 2017 we introduced a number of legislative initiatives to grant police powers to tackle organised crime, including new crime scene powers, the introduction of a new offence addressing drive-by shootings, and fortification removal laws.


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