Page 2403 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 30 July 2019
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considering the appropriate structure of either the ACT Health Directorate or Canberra Health Services, it was determined that an extra executive position was required or that there was extra remuneration required to get the right skills in the right positions. I will take the detail on notice.
MISS C BURCH: Minister, you may need to take this on notice as well: from what existing resources has this increase in the executive staff budget been funded?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: Miss Burch is right: I will take the question on notice.
MRS DUNNE: Minister, what is your plan to ensure that front-line health services get priority over executive and management staffing?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I think the government has a record, including in the last budget, of significant investment in front-line health services. It should also be noted that executives across Canberra Health Services often are part of supporting that front-line team. So I do not think that you can say that investing in an experienced executive staff member is not, in fact, supporting front-line services.
We have a strong record of investing in front-line services across Canberra Health Services: within Canberra Hospital; the expansion of Calvary hospital; the expansion of the Centenary Hospital for Women and Children; of course, the expansion of the nurse-led walk-in centre network; and the continued investment in our community health centre network. So across Canberra Health Services, we continue to invest in front-line services to ensure that Canberrans get the health care they need where and when they need it.
Budget—municipal services
MS ORR: My question is to the Minister for Transport and City Services. Following last month’s budget what new services is the government providing for Canberrans?
MR STEEL: I thank Ms Orr for her question. The ACT government is continuing to provide more and better services for our community and last month’s budget demonstrates the many ways we continue to deliver for Canberrans. We know that Canberrans are active and effective recyclers. We have very low waste contamination, and our government is working to divert 90 per cent of waste from landfill by 2025. Since the last election our government has delivered on the commitment to provide green bins to every Canberra household, a highly popular and highly utilised service. Now we look towards the next step: food waste.
Around 143,000 tonnes of organic waste goes into landfill each year. Food scraps and other organics make up approximately 37 per cent of the content of our garbage bins, and this is something that we are working to take action on with funding through the budget to help develop a food waste avoidance campaign to raise awareness amongst residents and businesses as to the volumes of food we waste every year and what steps can be taken to reduce waste in the first place. Food scraps will always make their way into our bins, and our government will begin the important step of planning for a citywide organics collection service as well.
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