Page 2881 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2018

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Our budget investment to deliver psychologists amounts to $7.3 million over the next four years. It will help students during what can be quite a challenging period of their lives by providing trained professionals who are experts in adolescent health and wellbeing.

This year’s budget also seeks to enhance the government’s substantial investment in the future of schools and learning. The ACT government’s continuing future of education conversation has been an incredibly useful process as we aim to ensure that the ACT’s education system performs as highly as possible.

The future of education strategy will become the guiding blueprint for the next 10 years of education in the ACT. It will be funded through an investment of $9 million in the budget. Teachers have the greatest impact on children’s outcomes. The strategy will place an emphasis on strengthening and supporting the pedagogical capabilities of our teachers, especially those who are beginning their careers, through leadership mentoring.

Education investment is so important to building Canberra’s future prosperity and ensuring that each child can reach their full potential. The budget investments that we are making now will support student learning and wellbeing in high quality and expanded modern education facilities that are needed in our growing city and by equipping the next generation for the challenges and opportunities that the future holds by investing in great teachers.

These 2018-19 budget measures support the ongoing future of education blueprint, which I am confident will provide the best possible direction for education in the territory. I commend the education measures in the budget to the Assembly.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate—Part 1.4

MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (4.35): I welcome the opportunity today to discuss the very important work the government is doing in relation to the Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate and the transport and city services portfolio, and the commitments the government has made through the 2018-19 budget.

This budget continues to strengthen our commitment to provide the community with a city-wide, integrated public transport network that can move people around the city quickly and efficiently. The government is delivering a public transport system that provides Canberrans with a real alternative to driving a car. The ACT government is focused on delivering what the community has asked for, which includes faster trips, more direct routes, more frequent and reliable services and increased services at peak and off-peak times. The government has listened, and this can be seen through Canberra’s changing public transport network.


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