Page 3109 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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areas of high risk. Health and safety remains a big focus in the territory, and everyone deserves the right to return home safely. These extra inspectors will assist WorkSafe ACT to respond to workplace health and safety complaints or incidents as well as conduct workplace inspections in priority areas to improve the overall safety performance for the territory. With these extra resources, WorkSafe ACT anticipates conducting an extra 300 workplace inspections in 2018-19.
The government will also be funding from this financial year two additional building inspectors to enhance consumer protection and undertake engagement, education and enforcement activities in the building and planning regulatory space. These additional resources will also allow a new rapid response team to foster faster complaint resolution. They will also focus on responding to any outstanding historical complaints, which Access Canberra aims to have resolved by the end of this calendar year.
Turning to small business, this year Access Canberra will be focusing on providing an easier registration process for local cafes. This is a thriving part of the small business sector, and the ACT government is currently negotiating with the commonwealth government to source funding under the small business regulation reform bilateral agreement. When an agreement is reached, Access Canberra will develop a customer-centric online platform for prospective cafe and food business operators to streamline the application process for registering businesses in the territory. Five full-time project staff have been funded in this year’s budget for this initiative to assist with bringing all relevant information for operating a cafe into a single online registration process that will satisfy all regulatory requirements, saving precious time for business owners.
As members in this place would be aware, Access Canberra has been working tirelessly to reduce the time frame for processing working with vulnerable people applications. Close to 110,000 Canberrans are registered, and the additional funding in this budget will ensure that decisions are made in a timely manner.
Additional risk assessment officers are also being recruited to consider the more complex applications as well as supporting improvements to protection for children and vulnerable people through the reportable conduct scheme and implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. To assist Access Canberra in this effort, the government has allocated $1.8 million.
The government will also be investing in better road safety by replacing fixed speed cameras with new and improved technology and by purchasing two additional licence plate recognition cameras to tackle dangerous and illegal parking in the territory. There will also be funding for four additional staff to operate licence plate recognition cameras.
The introduction of these cameras last financial year was a great success and is proof that this initiative significantly increases Access Canberra’s ability to regulate compliance and undertake education efforts to change behaviours with the public parking zones, focusing on vehicles parked in short-stay parking and school zones.
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