Page 630 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 February 2013
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Both Belconnen and Tuggeranong will benefit from new nurse-led walk-in centres following the successful establishment of the walk-in centre at the Canberra Hospital. We heard the health minister speak about the plans for these yesterday. Feedback from users of the Canberra Hospital walk-in-centre has been extremely positive, with most saying they would use it again or recommend it to family and friends. We want to ensure we are delivering services close to where people live to improve access and make it more convenient,
$10 million has been committed to boost health services at the Belconnen and Tuggeranong community health centres, along with $7 million for an additional 30 new community nurses to provide better access to care for vulnerable Canberrans in their homes. I also look forward to seeing plans for the new University of Canberra’s subacute public hospital to be developed over this term. As members heard during question time, this government is committed to lowering the disease burden on the ACT, reducing chronic diseases and improving the health and wellbeing of all Canberrans.
Moving away from health, $19.6 million has been earmarked for stage 2 of the upgrade and duplication of Ashley Drive between Erindale Drive and Johnson Drive. This follows a $7 million investment from the ACT Labor government for stage 1 from Sternberg Crescent to Erindale Drive. The forward design for the duplication will be completed early next year, with construction undertaken over the next four years.
Education and learning remain key priorities for this government, with a range of exciting projects planned for Canberra’s south side. We have committed $8.7 million to construct a new purpose-built centre of excellence in numeracy at the Caroline Chisholm School senior campus site. The centre will include mathematics laboratories, flexible learning areas, a new lecture theatre, a video conferencing link to local schools, a mathematics resource centre as well as staff and support offices.
A further $3 million in capital funding will allow development of new premises for the Tuggeranong introductory English centre at an upgraded Wanniassa Hills Primary School to help non-English-speaking primary school students and $7.5 million in capital funding will be provided to construct a new Canberra Institute of Technology Tuggeranong learning centre. The construction of a permanent CIT learning campus in the Tuggeranong valley will ensure vocational education and training students continue to have access to the latest teaching and learning environment close to home.
In my electorate, the government will invest $28 million over three years to refurbish and upgrade the Belconnen High School. The government are committed to ensuring that our communities are not only good places to live but also well resourced, secure and safe. We also heard in this place today about the additional ambulance resources, such as staff and hardware including vehicles, that this government have committed to delivering. We are also building two new emergency services stations in Charnwood and Aranda which will be combined ambulance and fire brigade stations. I was proud to be at the turning of the sod in Charnwood at the beginning of this project that will
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