Andrew Barr MLA DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER TREASURER MINISTER FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MINISTER FOR TOURISM, SPORT AND RECREATION MEMBER FOR MOLONGLO

MEDIA

RELEASE

UNDER STRICT EMBARGO until 1:00am Tuesday 31 January 2012

ACT performs well in 2012 Report on Government Services The ACT has again shown steady improvements in many key service areas measured in the 2012 Report on Government Services (ROGS), with ACT continuing to show itself to be one of the top performing jurisdictions in the country, acting Chief Minister Andrew Barr MLA said today. The ROGS, released today by the Productivity Commission, is an annual comparison of state and territory government services and a useful resource for confirming that services in the ACT continue to perform well by national standards. “The ACT expenditure on public schools was higher than the national average, reflecting the Government’s decision to invest in our public schools to provide quality education to our students. This expenditure has shown benefits for our students in many ways. “ACT public schools had a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.5, compared with the national average of 14.0 – a sign our students are receiving the attention they need to achieve success at school. “The ACT also had the highest apparent retention rate of all jurisdictions from year 10 to 12 for full-time secondary students in public schools, and the highest Year 12 completion rates. “The Government’s continuing investment in the vocational education and training sector is also showing good results with the ACT showing the highest proportion of government funded VET graduates who were unemployed before their training and employed or undertaking further training after completing the course. “Our health system is also performing well. Access to elective surgery, an area the Government has invested in significantly, continues to improve. A record of 11,338 elective surgery admissions were reported for 2010-11, up from the 9,778 in 2009-10. The ACT has now achieved record levels of access to elective surgery for the past seven years. “We are also performing well in ensuring our childcare services are the best in the nation. The National Childcare Accreditation Council quality assurance system data used in the 2012 ROGS showed 94% of long day care services rated either satisfactory or higher in the areas of health, nutrition and well being, the highest proportion in the country. The same data also gave the long day care services a rating of 98% for protective care and safety, the second highest proportion in Australia,” Mr Barr said. “The report also shows that the ACT continues to treat all of the most urgent emergency department presentations (category one patients) on arrival as well as being well above the national average for the category two level of presentations. This performance is particularly noteworthy in a year when we have seen a 5.5% increase in presentations to emergency departments.

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“The ACT continues to have the highest average life expectancy at birth, for both males and females, at 80.5 and 84.7 years respectively. The national average is 79.5 years for males and 84 years for females. “The ACT has recorded the highest percentage of structure fires which were contained to the room of origin and the ACT Ambulance Service reported improved emergency response times at both the 50th and 90th percentile indicators despite continued high levels of demand. “Satisfaction with ACT Policing’s overall services and the community’s perceptions of police integrity and professionalism all exceeded the Australian national average. The ACT also performed very well in relation to community perceptions of safety both at home and in public places with all categories within this criteria ranking above the Australian average.” “The ROGS shows that ACT Government’s efforts to improve services in key areas are working well. Our services compare very favourably with other jurisdictions and we anticipate continuing improvement in our results. “The ACT has performed consistently well in the ROGS and this is a good opportunity to recognise those areas where we have performed well. Of course we will also utilise the results to identify areas for future improvements, to ensure that the people of the ACT continue to have access to the highest quality services,” Mr Barr said.

Statement Ends 31 January 2012 Media Contact:

Daniel Landon Tracey Pulli

Ph: 6205 1690 Ph: 6205 0116

Mob: 0401 123 140

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