Page 3044 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 October 2022

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MR HANSON: Minister, you might need to take this on notice as well: what is being done to monitor those repeat offenders who are granted bail, to ensure future compliance and prevent reoffending?

MR STEEL: I will take that on notice.

MR CAIN: Minister Steel, can you provide this: can you resource TORIC at current levels as a permanent part of policing without sacrificing other areas of operation?

MR STEEL: I refer the member to answers given by Minister Gentleman in question time yesterday, when he talked about the fact that this is an operation that is going on for the period of time that it needs to go on; then there will be other operations that need to take place, depending on what the operational needs of ACT Policing are, based on the direction of the Chief Police Officer.

Community services—technology upgrade fund grants

MR DAVIS: My question is to the Minister for Veterans and Seniors, and Minister for Mental Health. Minister, the Tuggeranong Men’s Shed provides a very valuable service to older men in my electorate, providing connection and meaning to people—two incredibly important attributes to acknowledge during this Mental Health Month. I note that the Tuggeranong Men’s Shed has received some funding to purchase IT equipment under the technology upgrade fund. Can you tell me exactly how much money they have received and what upgrades are planned at the Tuggeranong Men’s Shed and across the Tuggeranong community?

MS DAVIDSON: I thank Mr Davis for the question. The Tuggeranong Men’s Shed have recently received grant funding of $1,964, which they are using to buy android tablets and an iPad for their men’s shed. This is part of the technology upgrade fund grant program. This grant program is specifically aimed at reducing digital exclusion in our community and supporting our community sector to upgrade the equipment that they use when they are supporting their members and clients and making sure that people can stay connected. With everything that we have been through over the past few years, it is really important that we are able to support people to stay socially connected. Our community sector organisations, like our men’s sheds, are a fantastic place for this to happen.

Quite often, when men want to have a talk about what they are going through, it is a lot easier to do that when you are working on something side by side with someone, rather than going in and sitting down specifically for that conversation. The conversations that people have about their wellbeing just in the general course of doing things that they enjoy doing together are really important for social connection, for wellbeing and for that sense of belonging that is such an important thing that we all need.

We have a number of other things that have been happening in Mr Davis’s electorate of Brindabella as well. The South Canberra Veterans Shed have also received a grant under that fund for printing equipment, a camera for online training and a digital read-out system for CAD, which will really help them to enable people to do online


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