Major Achievements
Major achievements for CMTEDD during 2015-16 included:
- developing legislation including:
- amendments to the Workers Compensation Act 1951 to allow for streamlined access to compensation for workers suffering from imminently fatal asbestos-related diseases, creating a fairer compensation system, with effect from 1 July 2017;
- the Reportable Conduct and Information Sharing Legislation Amendment Bill 2016, introduced in the Assembly on 9 June 2016, which will improve the oversight of how organisations respond to allegations of child abuse by employees and volunteers;
- amendments to the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009 to extend its coverage to aged care and waste management workers;
- amendments to the Lifetime Care and Support (Catastrophic Injuries) Act 2014 to extend the Lifetime Care and Support Scheme to include private sector workers catastrophically injured in a work place accident occurring from 1 July 2016;
- the Red Tape Reduction Legislation Amendment Act 2015, which was notified on 30 September 2015, and the Red Tape Reduction Legislation Amendment Act 2016, which was notified on 13 April 2016;
- a model single licensing framework for fair trading and other agencies, resulting in the Traders (Licensing) Bill 2015 being introduced in the Legislative Assembly on 9 June 2016;
- the Gaming and Racing (Red Tape Reduction) Legislation Amendment Bill 2016, which was introduced into the Assembly in June 2016, and:
- removes the requirement for pubs and clubs to display licences and authorisation certificates;
- allows easier access to clubs for interstate visitors; and
- introduces a modified licensing framework for race bookmaking;
- being the first jurisdiction in Australia to legalise and regulate ridesharing services with the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) (Taxi Industry Innovation) Amendment Act 2015, with legal ridesharing commencing in the Territory from 30 October 2015;
- centralising the whole of government employment resources with the launch of the ACTPS Employment portal: a single source of employment related guidance and policy accessible to all staff and stakeholders;
- being awarded for Excellence in Value Creation in the Shared Service and Outsourcing Network Excellence Awards, with Shared Services being recognised for its role in delivering efficiencies and improvements as well as the considerable ongoing benefits to the ACT Government, by supporting over 20,000 staff across all directorates, managing over 747 business systems and resolving over 59,000 transactions weekly;
- preparing the Territory’s Consolidated 2014-15 Annual Financial Statements, the 2015-16 Budget Review and the 2016-17 Budget;
- commencement a trial of smart parking technology in Manuka, which uses real-time technology to ease traffic congestion and travel time, including 460 Infra-Red sensors feeding real time parking information to the ParkCBR app and five LED street signs guiding drivers to available bays;
- development of the Social Inclusion Statement and the Safer Families Statement for the 2016‑17 ACT Budget;
- achievement of a record number of domestic visitors for the year ending March 2016, with 2.3 million domestic visitors coming to the ACT, staying 6.2 million nights and contributing $1.3 billion and the highest number of international visitors ever was also recorded, with almost 200,000 overseas travellers visiting the capital;
- development of a new Canberra Visitor Guide 2016 that lists an array of experiences available for both locals and visitors that cover the themes of food and wine, arts and culture, family fun, nature and outdoors, precincts, events and the surrounding region, in both hard copy and App format for both tablets and smartphones;
- demolition of 234 houses affected by loose fill asbestos insulation and commencement of the sale of remediated blocks under the final phase of the Loose Fill Asbestos Insulation Eradication Scheme;
- receiving the first of a series of performance audits from the Auditor-General on the work of the ACT Asbestos Response Taskforce that shows the Taskforce’s approach to governance and risk management is effective and reflects better practice;
- finalisation of the first expression of interest for private residential developments to be purchased as part of the ACT Government’s renewal of the public housing stock, with contracts for 14 projects totalling 157 dwellings, with some of these already completed and settled;
- hosting a range of entertainment and sporting events, and celebrations during the year including:
- Floriade and Floriade NightFest;
- New Year’s Eve celebrations in the city, which included a range of live music acts and two fireworks displays;
- Canberra Day celebrations;
- the Canberra Balloon Spectacular with over 40 balloons participating;
- Enlighten 2016;
- the World Cup qualification match between the Socceroos and Kyrgyzstan at the GIO Stadium Canberra;
- the Australian women’s cricket team One Day International match against India at Manuka Oval;
- the PM’s XI cricket match against New Zealand and also an international one-day match between Australia and India, at Manuka Oval; and
- the Lights! Canberra! Action! film festival, which calls for local filmmakers to write, shoot, edit and produce a seven-minute film around a central theme – this year’s theme being “chance”, with this year’s winner being The Archive by James Hunter. A record breaking 55 films entered the competition;
- being awarded Silver in the Major Festivals and Events Category of the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards 2015 for Floriade 2014, which had already won the Major Festivals and Events category at the 2015 Canberra Region Tourism Awards;
- finalisation of the upgrades to the Gorman Arts Centre including extensive landscaping works; upgrades to the Main Hall (previously the Bogong Theatre) including a new polished timber floor, new pendant lighting and kitchen facilities; and upgrades to administration facilities and the Ainslie Arts Centre;
- undertaking of a range of activities to provide and improve sporting facilities within the Territory, including:
- partnered with Volleyball ACT to establish the Lyneham Beach Sports Facility which caters for a large number of sports and activities in addition to volleyball, including football, netball, rugby, touch football and boot camps;
- upgraded the Weetangera oval, with new goal posts, a new synthetic cricket pitch and nets, sportsground floodlighting for the whole facility; and
- supported the redevelopment of the Canberra Tennis Centre at Lyneham, that included a central pavilion, refurbished clay courts and the four-court indoor centre;
- opening of three new trails at the National Arboretum Canberra from the Village Centre to points of interest at the Arboretum, including the Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park, the Wide Brown Land sculpture, the Himalayan cedar forest and Dairy Farmers Hill;
- implementation of the Our Canberra digital and print approach to how the ACT Government communicates directly with Canberrans on government news, initiatives and services, including a monthly regionalised newsletter to more than 180,000 Canberra households, and monthly digital newsletter delivered to more than 30,000 subscribers; and
- implementation of a range of reforms to the Cabinet process to improve collaboration between agencies and improve timeliness, including revising the Cabinet Handbook and digitising the cabinet process as part of the Whole of Government Electronic Document and Records Management System.
