Page 2097 - Week 07 - Thursday, 20 August 2020
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MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I will follow up that we are getting the right information to our junior doctors in relation to that.
Also, the ACT Labor government has provided fair pay increases, increases to superannuation, increases to parental leave and has genuinely worked with our workforce to ensure that they are able to deliver the critical services that they provide for our community.
Madam Assistant Speaker, as you know, we have not shied away from the fact that we must do better on culture in ACT public health services. That is why we invested, in the implementation of the Final Report of the Independent Review into the Workplace Culture within ACT Public Health Services, known as the culture review, $12 million over the period. In June this year I made a statement in relation to the inaugural review of the work in this space and it highlighted that there have been significant positive early signs of change in the culture. Anecdotally, most members of the culture review oversight group, of which I am chair and Minister Rattenbury is deputy chair, identify an improvement on the ground and, while some challenges identify themselves, we will work together to address them. Everyone around that table is taking joint responsibility for that, as they should, and are leaders across the health and industrial systems.
I will actually go to what was originally Mrs Dunne’s substantive motion because I think that is where it would have been really nice to be focusing today, on the incredible contribution that our healthcare workforce has made over the last few months and, indeed, the ongoing contribution that they make to our city and to the wellbeing of our community. We know that COVID-19 continues to impact every aspect of life, including our ACT public health system, but, equally, COVID-19 highlights how adept our system is at pulling together during this health pandemic to best serve our community’s needs. It was nice to hear Mrs Dunne, at the beginning of her speech, talking about how we all have been pulling together.
I cannot mention in the time that I have got left all the programs and areas of work that have been underway but I can confidently say that every member of ACT’s health system has likely been involved in some way, shape or form in the government’s COVID-19 response efforts and, indeed, the community’s. Our healthcare workers, frontline and behind the scenes, across a broad range of professions and roles, have been instrumental in keeping the ACT community safe while we face the challenges and uncertainties of this pandemic. As a workforce, they have addressed challenges head-on, they have moved swiftly in response to the evolving situation and, indeed, we have seen such significant innovation on the ground and we have seen them supporting one another in a time of great uncertainty when they have really, again, pulled and worked together. This extraordinary collaborative effort enables us to continue to meet the challenges of this very strange year in which we are living.
Our COVID-19 emergency response coordination centres are staffed by representatives from across the health system and, indeed, other parts of government as well. Located in our ACT Health Directorate, they have provided a whole-of-government response to keep our community safe. The health emergency
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