Page 2247 - Week 06 - Thursday, 6 June 2019
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Nurse walk-in centres are free, high quality and popular, as well as reducing pressure on our emergency departments. This budget delivers on our commitment for an additional centre in the inner north, in Dickson, as well as funding for the new one in Weston.
This budget invests in both acute and community-based mental health services, delivering better support for people experiencing severe mental illness and those managing chronic conditions. The budget also focuses on early intervention, which improves lives, builds resilience in our communities, keeps people well for longer and reduces avoidable use of acute in crisis services.
The Greens welcome the investment in drug and alcohol supports for vulnerable Canberrans. We have long called for drug use to be treated as a health issue, not a criminal one. While one aspect of that is through drug law reform, the other is providing the necessary health services to deal with issues of addiction and dependence. The budget funds the ACT drug strategy action plan, expanding early intervention and diversion programs and a new opioid treatment service on the north side of Canberra.
An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alcohol and drug residential rehabilitation facility has long been a priority for the community. I urge the government to use the allocated funds to ensure that a new facility is up and running as soon as possible.
We are pleased this budget supports our health staff to feel safe at work, particularly through implementing the nurse safety strategy and the independent health culture review.
We welcome over $40 million to support people with a disability who may not be receiving sufficient supports through the NDIS. While the NDIS has been of great benefit to some, we know many people are falling through the cracks. These are some of the most vulnerable people in our community, and it is important that the right supports are there for them when they are needed.
Moving on to city services, we are pleased to see that this budget implements outcomes of the recent better suburbs process. Better suburbs came after a Greens motion calling for a participatory budgeting pilot based on a discretionary portion of the city services budget. Participatory budgeting is an important way to increase citizen participation in democracy. It involves direct community decision-making on expenditure.
The better suburbs process included a citizens forum of 54 Canberra residents. The forum was empowered to make budgetary decisions for playgrounds funding and also make recommendations on the reprioritisation of many other parts of the city services budget. This budget implements forum recommendations, including increased funding for their top priorities of lakes, ponds and wetlands, trees, and waste and recycling, as well as several playgrounds and two new natural play spaces near Yerrabi Pond and in Kambah.
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