Page 3038 - Week 08 - Thursday, 15 August 2019
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system-wide approach to crime prevention, disruption and response, helping to deliver on our goal of reducing recidivism by 25 per cent by 2025.
Our $33.9 million commitment through this budget is the single largest investment in ACT Policing in this decade. By making this investment and recruiting over 60 operational staff over the coming years, the government will help our police officers meet evolving community needs, tackle new and emerging crimes and be more effective and visible to help keep our community safe.
The budget will provide $1.1 million over three years to support preparatory work to establish and trial a new fixated threat assessment capability in the ACT with officers from ACT Policing and ACT Health. We are investing more than $9 million over four years to upgrade ACT Policing facilities, to ensure that facilities are compliant with the building code of Australia and work health and safety.
The ACT 2019-20 budget provides funding of $9.52 million for the ACT Emergency Services Agency, ESA. New initiative support includes $3.1 million in 2019-2020 and 2020-21 to purchase a new aerial firefighting appliance and a new pumper for ACT Fire & Rescue; $2.65 million over four years to contract an additional helicopter to combat bushfires in the ACT and surrounding region and implement phase 3 of the national fire and danger rating system; $1.9 million in 2019-20 and 2020-21 to upgrade the ACT state emergency services Majura unit at Hackett, to ensure the continuation of a high level of operational response to flood and storm events in Canberra’s inner north; and $0.9 million in 2019-20 to complete due diligence investigations and undertake preliminary design for a new fire and ambulance station in the city and Molonglo Valley.
There will be $0.7 million in 2019-20 to undertake two recruit colleges, hiring 36 additional firefighters. This recruitment will maintain operational capability in firefighting and emergency rescue and help build workforce diversity in support of our women in emergency services strategy. There will be $1.2 million in 2019-20 to upgrade the multipurpose room at the Hume heli-base and create separate change areas for male and female volunteers at the Hall facility to better support workplace diversity. This initiative will be delivered through the better infrastructure fund. And there will be $70,000 in 2019-20 to scope innovative service delivery options and models of care for the ACT ambulance service to meet the needs of a growing Canberra.
In addition to these measures, the 2018-19 budget review, over four years from 2018-19, has provided $15.8 million over four years to recruit two additional ambulance crews, 30 paramedics, and expand the ACTAS fleet with five new ambulances to ensure that the ACT’s emergency response times remain the best in the country as Canberra grows; $3.1 million over four years to continue improving the ACT’s preparedness for bushfires, including by upgrading the ACT’s aerial bushfire fighting aviation fleet to include a specialist intelligence gathering-enabled helicopter; and $2.3 million in 2018-19 and 2019-20 to provide new structural personal protective clothing to firefighters, to help keep them safe at work. They are all good opportunities to ensure that ESA grows well into the future.
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