Page 2257 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013

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Justice Centre and will continue to provide intensive and targeted programs to young people which have a demonstrated positive impact on transition outcomes for young people.

We are continuing to work on a robust and strategic out-of-home care strategy to reform the delivery of out-of-home care services in the ACT. We are establishing a micro-credit program, Indigenous scholarships, a mobile attendant care and evening service in disability, and we have begun design work to renovate respite properties.

In the arts, we continue to fund the Fringe Festival and music, visual arts and multi-art hubs at Ainslie, Kingston and Gorman House. For our multicultural community in Canberra we have boosted the funding for the festival, community language schools, interpreter scholarships and multicultural sports grants for events such as the global cricket challenge.

ACT Labor recognises the importance of building and transforming our city, and we know this means investing in our people, not just our physical infrastructure. This is a budget that does just that. It begins the task of delivering on substantial election commitments that we have made—to our families, children and people in need. It locks in two major transformational social reforms—the introduction of funding for school education based on need and equity and a system of support that provides choice and dignity for people with a disability. I commend the budget but, more importantly at this moment, I commend the motion to the Assembly.

MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (11.14): I am pleased to join in this debate with my colleagues in support of Ms Berry’s motion on the important measures outlined in this year’s budget and the contribution they will make to the continued growth and development of our city. This morning I would like to focus on two particular areas. The first is the capital metro project, which has been talked about at some length in this debate.

This project is a critical one for changing the way we view public transport in our city. It was a commitment that this government took to the last election. It was a commitment taken by our colleague Mr Rattenbury on behalf of the Greens to the last election. It is a commitment that—shock, horror!—the government is now implementing. It is implementing a clear and explicit election commitment.

The commitment is to develop the first link of a light rail network for our city. Why have we chosen to make this investment? We have chosen to make this investment because it will provide an enhanced level of service for Canberrans who choose to use public transport, particularly on that very busy corridor between the city and Gungahlin. It will encourage more Canberrans to consider using public transport because of the reliability, the features, the perceptions and the comfort associated with commuting in a light rail vehicle.

We have chosen this model because we know that the impact of light rail is beyond that of the physical transport task that it performs. It has a much bigger impact. It


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