Hi Everyone,

It has been some time since I have been able to update my blog. Recently the Chief Minister tabled the 2007/08 Budget which can be accessed here.

I am a member of the Estimates Committee again this year and, now the intensive few weeks of public hearings associated with that have been completed, I have a small window of opportunity to catch my breath, as it were.

Next will be the private hearings and then the Select Committee will present its report during the August sitting.

Regarding the Budget, I am pleased to see additional spending in health, particularly addressing our acute hospital issues and mental health. As promised, there is considerable additional spending in Education. I am also pleased to see that Belconnen High is getting a new gymnasium.

The Government is keen to see all public schools with indoor sporting facilities as we face further pressures on our outdoor sporting fields from the drought. It looks like we may be spared the spectre of level 4 water restrictions until December 2007 at least, thanks to the welcome rain.

The task force looking into sporting grounds is still meeting to consider what steps we can take to preserve and maintain our sporting fields. One proposal is to install tanks at selected fields and truck water in from our plant at Fyshwick, to be used to water the grounds.

We are also establishing wetlands near Epic and the Racecourse, converting storm water channels. They will water these important venues. There are a number of other sites under consideration.

Of course ACTEW is about to hand down to the ACT Government its recommendations in relation to the various options it has considered in meeting our ongoing water needs. Thank you everyone who contributed in any way to the debate on the water2WATER option, or made other important contributions to this critical issue.

Climate change, of course, is on everyone's lips as a matter of hot debate, if you excuse the pun! I was receiving many representations on matters related to what could be broadly described as concerns about Climate change long before it became a fashionable topic.

For a long time, the ACT Government has been working behind the scenes, with its fellow State and Territory Governments, in preparing its own Climate Change Strategy which is about to be released.

In the May sitting period I tabled and spoke to a matter of Private Members Business namely that "this Assembly calls on the Commonwealth Government to work with the States and Territories to establish a national greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme."

You can find the text of this speech and others I have delivered by logging on to the Hansard site. Then go to speeches and the year you want and the Member. You will find this particular speech on Sitting week 4 of 2007 under PORTER.

Another aspect of the Budget that I am pleased about is the attention being paid to what I call urban matters, such as roads, footpaths, the attention to our street trees, bus shelters, playgrounds and the like.

I am also thrilled to see the first stage of the Art Centre in Belconnen funded in the Budget; more about that is in my July edition of the Porter Report.

As you may know I am a member of the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment and we are undertaking an inquiry into ACTION and will bring down our report shortly. Many people have been unhappy about changes made to our complex network last year.

Thanks to your feedback, many of these have since been adjusted to better suit your needs, but it still isn't perfect by any means. The Committee is hoping that its recommendations, when tabled, will assist.

The Government has also commissioned a study by a world expert on transport modelling to help us address some of our really difficult challenges in running a public transport system in such a large area in a cost effective way, and, at the same time, being more responsive to you as the traveller.

I am pleased that one of the other committees I sit on, as Deputy Chair, has brought down its report on Appropriate Housing for People with Mental Illness. This was an inquiry which I recommended that the committee undertake when I first became a member of the committee, and is one very close to my heart.

Log on to Standing Committee on Health and Disability. You will see many excellent recommendations, I believe. The other inquiries that we are undertaking are also there for you to look at.

I am hopeful, as Chair of the Education, Training and Young People's Committee, that I can report on the inquiry into Practices of Restorative Justice Principles in Youth Settings in the near future. However, hearings are still continuing in this important area. Again you can view this Committees' work

My office has had some changes in the recent past. Alys Graham, my full time Executive Officer resigned to take up a position with the Federal Member, Annette Ellis, in her electorate office. You may be aware that all Federal Members were granted an additional staff member recently.

I also lost my part time staffer, Jamila Rizvi, who has been working part time in this office and part time for the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Tony Bourke, in his Parliamentary office. Jamila was offered a full time position as a junior policy adviser in Mr Bourke's office, and accepted. Thanks for all your hard work and congratulations to both Alys and Jamila!

Another two fine young women have joined the "Porter Office Team", they are Annika Hutchins and Emma Smith. Both work part time and are studying at University, so you might hear either of them on the end of the phone if you ring the office. It was a little like a "baptism of fire" for them; without many weeks in the office we commenced sitting weeks and then Estimates, but they have responded magnificently!

My Mobile Offices continue regularly and, as always, you can find the dates, venues and times.

I am always interested in your ideas, views and of course your concerns, so please don't hesitate to contact me at any time.

Regards,

Mary