The 2010 Federal Budget was designed to get the budget back into surplus three years ahead of schedule, well in front of every major advanced economy. Public sector employment remains stable and this is also good news for our private sector. Labor is working hard to keep the economy in a position of strength. The ACT and Federal Labor Governments have worked together to deliver programs and projects that have kept people in jobs. This has helped our community and Australia avoid recession in the midst of a global economic crisis.

Local projects included $112.9 million over 4 years plus $2 million per year from 2014-15 onwards to establish and maintain the Australian National Institute for Public Policy on the ANU campus.

Health

At the University of Canberra I joined the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing Nicola Roxon and the ALP Candidate for Fraser Andrew Leigh to announce up to $2.2 million funding which will be committed to support approximately 216 clinical training placements for students at the University of Canberra and the Australian National Universities who are currently enrolled in medicine, nursing, optometry, physiotherapy, social work, dentistry, podiatry and a number of other disciplines.

Social Housing

Recently I officially opened with ACT Housing and Community Services Minister Joy Burch the first of 20 properties constructed under a new program to house homeless families. A Place to Call Home is a $10 million initiative under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness between the ACT and Commonwealth governments, with each
contributing $5 million.

Information Awareness Month

This year’s theme was Access across the generations and I spoke about ‘Gov 2.0 – communities and conversations’- the implications and opportunities for more effective engagement between the citizen and the government. In December last year the Government received a report from the Gov 2.0 taskforce. It offered a series of recommendations for a government keen to harness the interactive web – including online social networking – to improve governance, administration and service delivery.

CEOs help with homelessness

I joined hundreds of CEOs across Australia participating in the St Vinnies CEO Sleepout in Canberra on 17 June 2010. The initiative raised awareness and funding to tackle homelessness in Australia.