Governing the City State - Chief Minister and Treasury Directorate ...

A further issue to emerge in consultations, and covered in part in the Review of ACTAmbulance Service Positioning the Service to Meet Future Challenges 202 prepared byMr Grant Lennox in April 2010, was the methodology for funding delivery of emergencyservices. In part, the growth in emergency services costs is driven by specialist equipmentand staff, but it is also affected by growth in service population and area. For AmbulanceServices in particular, access to General Practitioner services, demographic change andchronic disease rates in the community also contribute to demand and cost growth.Work underway on these issues, should be brought to an early conclusion.Alignment of the ACT Ambulance Service (ACTAS) with ACT Health, and not theEmergency Services Agency was suggested to the Review. The Review notes theAssembly’s Public Accounts Committee recently recommended ACTAS remains within theemergency services portfolio – a recommendation to which the Government agreed in itsResponse. 203 The Review endorses the current integration of the four emergency services inthe Emergency Services Agency, which delivers economies of scale and close cohesion andalignment of effort in preparing for, and responding to, emergencies in the ACT.AFP ACT PolicingThe process to renegotiate arrangements with the Commonwealth Government for provisionof community policing by AFP ACT Policing is underway. The benefits to the ACT thatflow from mobility within the AFP and capacity to draw on additional resources as requiredare significant. While endorsing the arrangements for the provision of community policing inthe ACT, the Review notes the importance of Ministerial Directions under Section 6 of thePolicing Arrangement between the Commonwealth and ACT Governments to the articulation204of the ACT Government’s expectations of priorities for ACT Policing.The annual Purchase Agreement for the Provision of Policing Services 205 plays an importantrole in the ACT Government specifying in addition to the broad outcome of a safer and moresecure ACT, detailed outputs and performance indicators which ACT Policing is required todeliver and by which its success is measured. This agreement plays a key role in establishingthe ACT Government’s priorities for community policing.Review of Case Management PracticesThe Review notes the Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Attorney-Generalhave commissioned The Hon Justice Hilary Penfold and the Chief Executive of theDepartment of Justice and Community Safety, Ms Kathy Leigh, to examine case managementpractices in the Supreme Court with a view to developing recommendations on changes topractice, procedure and the law to achieve more efficient use of the Supreme Court’s time.That review is due to report in April 2011.202 See http://www.esa.act.gov.au/ESAWebsite/content_actas/home_page/lennox_report_4_may_2010.pdf203 See http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/downloads/reports/7th%20PAC09%20amblance.pdf204 See http://cdn.justice.act.gov.au/resources/uploads/JACS/PDF/2010-2011_Ministerial_Direction.pdf205 See http://www.justice.act.gov.au/publication/view/1092Administrative Arrangements Changes: 149