Page 3084 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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for Police and Emergency Services) (9.05): I thank members for their contribution to the debate on this important appropriation this evening. The government’s initiatives in the Justice and Community Safety Directorate again indicate its strong commitment to the delivery of better services, expanded services to deliver a safer Canberra and a fairer Canberra for all its citizens.
It is a significant investment in this budget which has largely been ignored by all of the opposition speakers. In particular, the investment in our emergency services is a very important investment. Thirty front-line ambulance service paramedics, five new ambulances and updated equipment are provided to increase service delivery as we see increased demand for services for our ambulance service. An amount of $22.5 million has been provided over four years to ensure that our ambulance services continue to be able to meet the growing demand in our community.
Of course, there is also additional money to recruit and train firefighters, with $1.1 million to recruit and train 32 new firefighters for the ACT Fire Brigade. This anticipates a significant level of retirement in the fire brigade in the coming years. There is new equipment for our fire brigade, including upgraded safety and breathing apparatus and equipment to respond to hazardous materials, with $2 million being provided over the next four years.
Of course, there is also the very important work of preparing the ground for where new emergency service stations go over the next five, 10 or 15 years. There is a need to comprehensively readjust where our fire and ambulance stations are to make sure that they are able to meet demand in the future.
The government has completed all of its analysis now in relation to where the best locations are to maintain and improve fire and ambulance cover for the city as it continues to grow. The funding in this year’s budget, $4 million, will allow government first of all to engage with the community, explain the results of the analysis and what the options are, and undertake detailed analysis of individual sites. All this due diligence needs to be done before the design work can commence. This is an important body of work. I am very pleased that the government has agreed to funding for this significant medium to long-term task of upgrading and relocating all of our fire and ambulance stations across the territory.
The government is also providing additional capacity for the Emergency Services Agency communication centre, upgrades to equipment as existing pieces of software and hardware reach the end of their operational lives and new capacity for the State Emergency Service to deal with flooding incidents with new high capacity pumping equipment to deal with flooded buildings and other such situations.
I turn to the justice side of the equation. There is no doubt that the delivery of justice services remains a challenge. We continue to see serious concerns in relation to delays in our Supreme Court. It is not for lack of trying on the part of the government as to how we try to resolve these issues. The government maintains its very strong position that fundamental structural reform of the way our courts operate is essential if, in the medium to long term, we are going to be able to address the problems with listing, delays and the hearing of matters in our courts, particularly in the Supreme Court.
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