BACKING the call of Senior Australian of the Year Val Dempsey to skill Canberrans on first aid as they learn to drive, the ACT government is offering a five-hour discount to learner drivers who complete an e-course in first aid from their 100-hour requirement of supervised driving.
St John Ambulance Australia has launched a new free e-learning course, which the government will encourage learner drivers to complete under the ACT’s Graduated Licensing Scheme.
“I couldn’t think of a stronger incentive for learner drivers to equip themselves with these basic, lifesaving skills. I’m so grateful that Minister Steel and the ACT Government has taken this important step and hope that other states and territories follow,” says Ms Dempsey.
The 30-minute, online, first-aid course will provide new drivers with basic first-aid skills to respond to road injuries if they’re the first on scene at a road traffic collision.
The Queensland University of Technology will undertake a formal evaluation of the course, under the ACT Road Safety Fund. The evaluation will also explore potential for the first aid course’s expansion across Australia and whether the training should be mandatory to complete for all learner drivers.
Further information about the reduction in mandatory supervised learner driving hours will be made available in the coming months.
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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