Page 4132 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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Perhaps Mr Steel could have taken up my offer to discuss these matters and then he would not have put such erroneous comments out in the media yesterday.
I wrote to Mr Steel on 24 August, on his first day as minister, saying, amongst other things, that I would be happy to meet with him as soon as possible to discuss how we can together progress issues relating to dangerous dogs et cetera. I have had no response to my letter. Mr Steel could have approached me to ask what might be in the final bill presented today, but no. They have a long history of inaction on dog management.
The Canberra Liberals have a long history of action to make Canberra safer. We will continue to consult widely and bring on more legislation. We will continue to bring forward changes to make Canberra a safer place. We will continue, unfortunately I believe, to face more dog attacks. What people say to me over and over again is that they are concerned that a dog that attacks another dog is often only inches away from attacking a child or a frail, elderly person, for example. This is the comment I hear over and over again.
People do not expect that dangerous dogs will be held in the community. They do not expect, for example, that dangerous criminals do not go to jail because the jails may be overcrowded. They do not expect that sick people cannot go to hospital because the hospitals may be overcrowded. Wait! Sorry, actually that is already happening. What we do expect is that the government will provide the basic services to keep Canberrans safe, and that is what this bill is intended to do.
Debate (on motion by Mr Steel) adjourned to the next sitting.
Schools—workplace safety
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (10.22): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes that:
(a) all teachers deserve to work in a safe environment in ACT schools;
(b) a Worksafe investigation concluded in September 2018 that the ACT Education Directorate has failed in its duty of care to teachers in Canberra government schools;
(c) Worksafe has been investigating reports of teacher abuse going back at least two years and reports of injury in Canberra government schools had been reported for several years prior to that investigation;
(d) despite teachers and staff reporting on numerous occasions of violence and injuries suffered as a result, the Directorate failed to put in place adequate procedures to appropriately deal with those reports; and
(e) the extent of teacher abuse is unknown as much may have gone unreported; and
(2) calls on the Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development to:
(a) acknowledge that the evidence provided over at least the last two years and highlighted by the Worksafe report, shows that current practices have
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