Page 16 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2019
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and public health care, the shift to powering Canberra with 100 per cent renewable electricity, more inclusive social policies, attracting new businesses and creating good jobs in our key industry sectors by opening our city to the world—these are all the promises that we made at the 2016 election and this is what we are focused on delivering in this parliamentary term.
Our agenda is to continue making Canberra more inclusive, more progressive and more connected. In 2019 this will mean getting on with the job of delivering the better infrastructure, better services and better community supports that we promised.
Our city is a great place to live, and more and more people are choosing to make our city and the surrounding region their home. As we speak today, Canberra’s population is over 420,000 people and it will reach half a million in the next 10 years. We understand that it is our role and responsibility as a territory government to cater for these new arrivals so that Canberra families are not stuck in traffic jams or left struggling to access the healthcare and education services that they need.
That is why we have work underway on a half-billion-dollar expansion of the Canberra Hospital, along with other community health facilities. Late last year, we confirmed the location of the new SPIRE centre that will deliver more and better emergency and specialist healthcare services. In the next few months, the government will consider the full business case for this important project so that we can get on with letting tenders and getting shovels into the ground.
We will deliver territory-wide health care, open an expanded and upgraded emergency department at Calvary Public Hospital, focus on continuing to bring down waiting times and deliver 14,000 elective surgeries this financial year. Canberrans can also expect to see a clear focus on improving the culture of public health workplaces in Canberra, as the government implements the recommendations of the independent review into workplace culture.
We will also begin delivering on our commitment for two new paramedic crews and five new state-of-the-art ambulances, fitted with electronic stretchers, power loaders and brand-new defibrillators. This adds to the 23 new paramedics and two new ambulances delivered last year and shows that the government is continuing to invest in core emergency services as our city grows.
Being a truly inclusive city means ensuring that everyone has fair and equal access to justice, whether they are a victim, they are accused of a crime or they have been involved in a civil case. Following extensive consultation with the disability and legal communities, we will finalise a disability justice strategy for the ACT in the first half of 2019, delivering on another 2016 election commitment.
In education, we are in the process of delivering more public schools and more student places at existing schools. With the 2019 school year comes the opening of the Margaret Hendry School, Gungahlin’s newest primary school. Located in the suburb of Taylor, the school will ensure that children in Canberra’s fastest growing region can continue to find a place at a great local school close to their home. We are also
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