Page 3032 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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explain to those front-line services why these cuts are being made and when they will be restored. (Second speaking period taken.)
Going to another point, the ACT Coroner’s Court annual report 2018-19 has been tabled. The report highlights the outstanding work that the magistrates in the ACT perform when conducting work as coroners. Yet again, however, it exposed an area where vital services were left without the resources required. In the report Chief Magistrate, Lorraine Walker states:
The ACT Coroner’s Court receives no allocated resourcing for the performance of judicial coronial functions. Again the arrangements of some long standing whereby every Magistrate retains an active coronial case load continued in 2018/19, but that case load is discharged as a secondary priority—
I repeat: as a secondary priority—
with duties as a Magistrate commanding more immediate attention.
The Chief Magistrate continued:
I make my call again for proper resourcing of the ACT Coroners Court and the appointment of a dedicated Coroner. My coronial colleagues and the staff of the Court do the best they can within the time ordinarily available to them, and as this Report demonstrates, have achieved truly remarkable results in the circumstances. A dedicated Coroner however is probably the next step which needs to be taken to professionalise the jurisdiction and ensure consistency and efficiency in dealing with matters.
I support those calls and I urge the government to act.
We hear a lot from those opposite, and particularly from Mr Gentleman, that the opposition did not support the budget on particular line items. Let me be very clear that I do not support a budget that cuts services to front-line organisations that are there providing support, particularly, as the CEO of Legal Aid said, to women who are facing domestic and family violence, the people who need support in our courts with translation, and other front-line staff. I cannot find it in myself to support these cruel cuts that are being made by this government. Clearly, it has its priorities wrong.
I call on the government again to restore these cuts immediately and also to provide the support that the Magistrates Court needs with the provision of a dedicated coroner.
MRS JONES (Murrumbidgee) (4.01): I rise today to make remarks on police, emergency services and corrections. The men and women of the front lines have not been prioritised under this government. The police have been stripped of resources, paramedic numbers neglected for years, firefighters are below the funded establishment and the prison continues to lurch from crisis to crisis.
The Canberra Liberals were disappointed to see the government pass on the opportunity to invest further in our front-line force. In 2010-11 there were 719 sworn police officers serving in the front lines of ACT Policing but under this Labor-Greens
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