Page 3201 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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Mr Cocks: Madam Speaker, the question was very specific, around what extra resources are being provided for teachers and support staff. The minister has not spoken to what is being done.
MADAM SPEAKER: I think she is in order because she is referring to general support of activity, curriculum development, and supporting students and teachers. Ms Berry, you have 50-odd seconds left.
MS BERRY: The additional workload pressure reduction for teachers in our public schools has involved implementing the additional pupil-free days, which allows teachers and school leaders to do planning, so that they can spend good, quality time in front of their students when they are attending. Those are just a couple of things. We know we have more to do, and we are keen to hear from our teachers, school staff, school leaders and school principals to understand what else we can do to make sure that our teachers can spend as much quality time in front of students as they possibly can.
ACT Policing—response times
MR HANSON: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. I refer to the AFP annual report, which shows that ACT Policing did not hit their required target in responding to priority 1 critical incident calls—so called “life or death” situations—or priority 2 calls, which require a response within 20 minutes. Minister, why didn’t ACT Policing meet the priority 1 or priority 2 targets?
MR GENTLEMAN: I thank Mr Hanson for the question. It is an important question, as we look towards resourcing policing through our budgets to ensure we have the amount of support for police to meet those targets. In this case, I will take the detail of the question on notice. I think there are some areas there we need to talk to police about—in reporting and resourcing.
MR HANSON: Minister, what is the risk to community safety in ACT Policing not meeting these targets?
MR GENTLEMAN: Canberra is a very safe city. Canberrans have told the government and responded to our surveys about safety across the city. Police are doing a very good job and keeping our community very safe. There are aspects of community policing which need to be supported, and we will work through that, but, as I said, we know that Canberra is a safe city. Police have my confidence and will continue to keep the city safe.
MR MILLIGAN: Minister, how has the lack of funding affected the ability to respond to critical calls in the ACT?
MR GENTLEMAN: We have increased funding every budget for ACT Policing through priority programs and through the taskforce, and there is more funding for policing in this budget as well. I would say to those opposite: when you get the opportunity, please vote for that funding this year, and we look forward to you supporting our police.
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