Page 1296 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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George said on Facebook:
What are the ACT Greens policies on saving our green spaces? The petition is a good start but what are they going to the election with?
The Canberra Liberals know full well the importance of suburban green space. We well and truly nailed our colours to the mast on that issue with our green space guarantee. I applaud the people of Weston for making their voices heard on this.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
ACT economic response to COVID-19
Ministerial statement
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (10.19): When I handed down the 2019-20 budget review in February, the Orroral Valley bushfire, the smoke haze and the freak hailstorm were at the forefront of our minds. Today, we are months into a public health emergency and a rolling global health and economic crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge the ACT has faced in our self-government era.
In the 2019-20 budget review we had identified COVID-19 as an emerging risk to our economic growth, but it is fair to say that few of us could have contemplated how quickly and profoundly COVID-19 would change the world. As we learnt more about the virus and listened to the advice of health experts, there were dramatic changes in the way we all had to live our lives. The speed of change was so great that before the Appropriation Bill 2019-2020 (No 2) was debated and passed, it was amended to include additional funding to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this stage it is impossible to quantify the full impact of the continuing pandemic, but the economic ramifications and the personal toll are immense. The pain has been felt by everyone.
Here in the ACT we are in one of the strongest positions around the world, due to our decisive early steps to reduce the risk of transmission, while supporting our economy and protecting jobs. The government acted quickly to support our health system, our businesses, our jobs and our community. The restrictions and measures recommended by the AHPPC and agreed by the national cabinet have been evidence-based and aimed at minimising the health crisis.
We are in the relatively strong economic position we are only because we listened to and implemented that expert public health advice and we acted to ensure that our hospitals and healthcare services were equipped to deal with COVID-19. These times require an absolute focus on public health, on jobs and on economic recovery. There is more to do. Our objectives are to keep people in jobs and reduce unemployment, underemployment and underutilisation.
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