Page 816 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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expenditure and the best possible outcomes when we are using taxpayers’ money and their rights.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (5.17): The Greens support the outcomes of the budget review, as well as the additional initiatives in the COVID emergency response funding, and will be supporting this bill and the government amendments. I will briefly touch on the COVID emergency response packages, which are covered by the government amendments to the bill. I note that a second package was released at lunchtime today, and I am sure the Treasurer will tell us more about it when he stands to speak. This bill will enable its expenditure.
Through the two emergency response packages that have been released so far, the ACT Labor-Greens government is delivering strong support for our community through this challenging time. I will not touch on all the measures in the packages but I particularly highlight some of the initiatives in my portfolio of mental health.
As I touched on in question time, the first package provided an extra $100,000 to Lifeline ACT. These extra funds are already helping them field up to 1,000 extra calls each month. As of two weeks ago, Lifeline had experienced a 25 per cent increase in calls, and since receiving the funding provided they have been able to answer 23 per cent more calls to their service. They have reported back to us that in the past three weeks 100 per cent of their calls have touched on COVID-19 in some way.
The second package expands this, with $135,000 in funding for two other frontline community mental health providers: Perinatal Wellbeing Centre and Menslink. This funding will help these organisations meet the increase in demand that they are experiencing in these challenging times. I think we also need to acknowledge the range of community organisations that have also lost important fundraising opportunities. Not only are they seeing increases in demand but some of the revenue they would have expected to otherwise see is not coming in. So there is a dual challenge there for some of our NGOs, and we will continue to do our best to support them to meet those dual challenges.
The first package’s additional $7 million for local community services like emergency and food relief services is an example of this critical support for those with few resources to fall back on as we go through this crisis. In the second package I am particularly pleased with the extra support for renters and those doing it tough. For example, for renters who have lost their jobs or had their hours cut there are incentives from the government to landlords to reduce rents for up to six months. I think this is a welcome and substantive initiative that will make a real difference for people who are struggling to get through this difficult period from an economic perspective.
More specifically on the budget review, in normal circumstances the Greens would give a detailed commentary on the initiatives in the budget review. But I will limit myself to briefly listing what we see as the highlights. The funding increase of $63 million for Canberra Health Services is vital for health services to meet growing demand in the territory. As health services around the world reach a tipping point, this funding is an important commitment towards ensuring that our health services have
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