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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Lucy Bladen

Psychology services and larger green bins part of election pitches

The ACT election will be held in just 19 days and campaigning is really starting to ramp up.

Parties are making promises left right and centre with many trying to announce what they can before pre-polling begins on October 8.

Here is what the major parties have announced on Tuesday.

Canberra Liberals

The Canberra Liberals say they will deliver 7000 extra psychology, counselling and behavioural services for ACT schools if they are elected later this month.

The services are included in the party's $40 million mental health package. This would include $10 million to boost front line mental health service delivery and $20 million for mental health community house.

There would also be a $10 million mental health workforce fund for training and retention activities.

The Liberals have also promised to develop the world's first suicide prevention legislation. This would establish a whole-of-government approach to help prevent suicide.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee. Pictures by Sitthixay Ditthavong, Karleen Minney

"The Canberra Liberals will ensure that Canberrans have access to the mental health services and supports they need, when they need them," Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said.

"The demand for mental health services has never been higher in the ACT but for too long the Labor-Greens government have failed to deliver the high-quality mental health system and services Canberrans deserve."

ACT Labor 

A bikeway connecting west Belconnen with the Belconnen town centre would be built if Labor is re-elected.

It would be the latest in a series of bikeways that have been built across Canberra, including the Belconnen bikeway.

The bikeway is part of a city services plan released by Labor.

The party say they would build and renew $120 million in infrastructure including playgrounds, local shops and ongoing road maintenance and resurfacing.

The party would also give households the option to order large green bins for garden waste. They would also explore an expansion of the container deposit scheme to include more items.

ACT Greens 

The ACT Greens recommitted to their plan for a freestanding birth centre.

The centre would be separate to a hospital campus, with Greens candidate for Ginninderra Jo Clay saying this is something the community had been calling for.

"Birth is not an illness. Yet the vast majority of women and birthing people currently have no choice but to give birth inside a hospital," Ms Clay said.

"The ACT Greens want all women and pregnant people to have the ability to choose the type of care and place of birth that is right for them. But currently our two hospital-based birth centres have hundreds on the waitlist.

"The Canberra community has been calling for a freestanding birth centre for almost a hundred years and it's time we built one, in addition to the two hospital-based birth centres that already exist."

The Greens say they would expand midwife-led continuity of care for everybody who wants it. Under the model, the same midwife delivers care throughout a pregnancy.

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