Page 2830 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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We believe, for example, that people should only have to prove who they are to government once and then be able to access all services applicable to them based on their needs and the services that they have used before. At the moment Canberrans can access a range of services through the ACT government digital account. These include the rental bond help scheme, Access Canberra infringements and the my family service, which keeps track of key information like birth and marriage certificates all in one place. The funding delivered through this year’s budget will deliver reforms to the working with vulnerable people scheme, including enhanced protection for vulnerable people working through the NDIS worker screening system.
We will also be exploring ways to make it easier for people to prove their eligibility for a range of concessions. The aim of this work is that people accessing concessions, such as pensioners, veterans, seniors and students, will only need to prove their eligibility once and then have all their concessions applied automatically for all connected services. Today I am advised that over 8,000 Canberrans have an ACT digital account. As we progressively move more services to this new digital channel, this will save people time and deliver real value, as well as allowing Access Canberra staff to spend more time helping those Canberrans who prefer to come into a service centre or to use the phone.
Another important whole-of-government initiative that the Chief Minister’s stream is leading for the next budget round is the development of the ACT’s first wellbeing indicators. As I have pointed out before, by any standard of economic metrics Canberra is doing very well. We consistently have amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the country, our economy has grown faster than that of every other state and territory for several years now, and our population has been growing above national average. That has led to around 8,000 new Canberrans a year coming to the city.
More people, of course, are attracted by our city’s amenities, great local services and livability. There are thousands of additional businesses operating in the city, thousands of additional residents. The facts around population growth, economic growth, business growth, low levels of unemployment, strong labour market participation and employment growth in Canberra in recent years again belie all the rhetoric that we have just heard from the Leader of the Opposition. All the statistics that are collected by the ABS and by the ACT government and are regularly reported on demonstrate an economy and a community that are growing very strongly.
Far from this rhetoric of people fleeing the ACT and businesses fleeing the ACT, we have seen extraordinary growth—the exact opposite of the pathetic rhetoric we heard from the Leader of the Opposition in his very dark, dim, conservative 20-minute diatribe about all that is allegedly wrong with one of the fastest growing economies in this nation, with a city that is attracting new residents every day from all over the world and all over Australia.
The city is growing rapidly. It is one of the most socially inclusive cities in this nation, if not the world. People are flocking to live in Canberra because it is a great place to live. The OECD has ranked us the world’s most livable city. We intend to build on this considerable period of economic growth, of social inclusion and of population
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