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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1740 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

the Liberals, they are allowing property numbers to fall while our waiting lists continue to grow.

Mr Speaker, there is also the growing problem of the shortage of GPs, particularly bulk-billing GPs. The proposed federal changes to Medicare has heightened the anxiety of families and our aged communities that they may not have access to bulk-billing GPs. A number of times in this Assembly we have spoken about how nurse practitioners would provide part of the solution. However, there is no funding in this year's budget for a nurse practitioner scheme, despite legislation being tabled today. By training, supporting and retaining nurses who are performing higher duties, we would have nurses who would be able to perform many of the duties and services of GPs. We would thereby be supporting GPs and our nurses and making real inroads into the GP shortage. This is really a missed opportunity and it should be a priority for next year's budget.

The New South Wales government has already gone ahead with a system to accredit highly qualified and experienced nurses as nurse practitioners with referral and prescribing rights in their areas of speciality. Victoria has also moved in the same direction by establishing accreditation of nurse practitioners to take pathology samples. If we fail to take similar action we could lose our nurses across the border, making the situation here much, much worse.

Mr Speaker, there was much debate in the lead-up to the budget about a possible bushfire levy. The bushfire that struck on January 18 has deeply affected the Canberra community, and the community responded in a time of crisis. Canberrans have opened their hearts over the last 31/2 months. They have donated generously, through the bushfire appeal and in many other ways, to the families who were directly affected by fire. They have offered accommodation, clothing, food and other support.

The Stanhope government should not exploit this sympathy by creating a further burden on the community when this is not absolutely necessary. The proposed $10 million tax could easily have been met within a $60 million surplus. We must be careful about introducing a new tax across the community based on rates because some people who are already facing a crisis with the housing they own will not be able to afford to pay. As the affordability housing task force showed, there is a great number of people in our community who are not in housing crisis but live in housing stress.

Mr Speaker, having highlighted housing, public transport and the GP shortage as three big issues that the Stanhope government has not tackled, and also registering my opposition to the unnecessary bushfire levy, I will now acknowledge that the government has listened to the community in other respects and delivered some good initiatives in this budget.

The ACT Democrats lodged a petition from over 900 residents calling for the construction of a permanent library at Kippax, and since that time there have been Assembly motions calling for a commitment to and a time line on planning in Kippax. So I was pleased to see that $300,000 will be spent in this year and $2.2 million in the next year on Kippax Library facilities. This is a win for the community of west Belconnen.

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