Page 3726 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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All of these projects are important to me as Chief Minister, to the government and to the ACT community. They reflect policies developed by the combined expertise and commitment of the community and feed in through things like the community offices. All Labor members out in the community get feedback about what is important to members of the community and feed that back into our policy development process.
In relation to areas within my own portfolio of Health, we have opened the EDICU expansion and we have opened the new step-up, step-down mental health facility with support from the commonwealth. The Belconnen community health centre becomes operational on 11 November. We have funded the mobile dental clinic which will start operations soon. It is well underway. Consultations with residential aged-care providers and the Council on the Ageing will take place next week to look at getting the model of that service right.
Funding for the birth centre on the north side of Canberra, again, is really important for women who want to birth at Calvary hospital, having a less hospital room type delivery suite and more of a home-based service, similar to the birth centre suite that operates at Canberra Hospital. As to the paediatric emergency department, a request that I get from members of the community is that when children present they will in future be able to be treated in an area that is dedicated just for their needs.
Regarding the towards zero growth healthy weight action plan which we released last week, whilst it is the first of its kind in the country, I think more and more you will see governments having to release plans like this as they deal with the impact of the growth in obesity across various jurisdictional populations. We are targeting our health promotion grants into this specific area and trying to focus our effort with the limited funds available.
In higher education, I have launched the study Canberra initiative. I have also led a delegation to China to support the work that the universities do in exporting ACT programs and also encouraging international students to come and learn at our world-class universities. I have also established the vice-chancellor’s forum to look at how we can work at a very high level to encourage Canberra to become a study destination of choice in Australia.
In regional development, we have got the Select Committee on Regional Development which Ms Berry is chairing. We have got the MOU on regional collaboration being further worked upon. I have attended SEROC meetings. So there is a lot going on, not just across the Chief Minister’s portfolio but in all of the other portfolios that I work on.
I think the important thing to note, though, is that none of these achievements give us any reason for complacency. We have lots of challenges ahead, but we will continue to work hard to deliver on the commitments we have made to the people of the ACT.
To deal with the challenges that are faced by the community in the next couple of years we will constantly look at ways to improve on the way we deliver services and the way we deliver infrastructure. We will continue to work on our relationships with
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