Page 1683 - Week 06 - Thursday, 20 May 1993
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is one hour and 30 minutes? Has the estimated $100,000 saved by cuts in ACT representative school sport been redistributed within the sporting budget? Why is per capita funding from the ACT Health Promotion Fund only $3.50 here in the ACT while in other States it is as high as $6.50?
Mr Berry: What is it in Queensland?
MR CORNWELL: You had better ask Mr Goss. He is your Labor Premier. Fourthly, why was the ACT's sports budget from ACT health promotion pegged at $900,000 for three years? Did not the Health Promotion Fund receive more and increasing revenues in those three years? Why was it stuck at $900,000 for three years and only just recently increased?
These are questions that Mr Naar properly asks. He would also like to see the ACT Health Promotion Fund granted autonomy, as it is in the other States, Mr Berry, and allowed to handle its own money. We know, of course, that this is a no-no, because Mr Berry does not believe in anybody handling any funding whatsoever, judging by his actions on the TAB of which he advised this morning. Those are questions that I think could quite properly be raised at this forum on Saturday. I also believe that the basic needs of a lot of sporting organisations are very urgent. I refer specifically to the areas of the Tuggeranong Valley, particularly the southern areas of the Tuggeranong Valley where one hears constant complaints.
Mr Berry: You want another swimming pool there?
MR CORNWELL: No, not about swimming pools, Mr Berry. I acknowledge that the Tuggeranong pool, which I visited at the opening last Saturday, along with a number of other people, is an excellent facility, and I am sure that it will be appreciated and much used by the people of Tuggeranong.
But there are other sports that need to be addressed. One of the questions I have on the notice paper is about the provision of cricket pitches in the southern Tuggeranong area - not necessarily turf wickets, though we would like to see one, perhaps at the enclosed Greenway oval. There is also the question of the provision of such basic items as toilet facilities at the Banks oval, which, I understand, is the headquarters of the Knights, the South Tuggeranong minor rugby league teams. I would think that toilet facilities are fairly essential at any oval. I understand that they do not exist there at the moment, and part of the reason, I appreciate, is lack of funds. There is also the thorny and continuing question that I have raised with you on a number of occasions about some basic change room facilities at suburban ovals, so that 16- and 17-year-olds do not have to change into their sporting gear in the back of cars, or behind people holding up blankets, or whatever. Your answer quoted me a grandstand complete with canteen costing $300,000, which was patently absurd for the needs of these people.
These are the issues, sir, that I am sure the people who are attending this forum next Saturday would prefer to address as a matter of priority, indeed, as a matter of urgency, and then, perhaps, we could look at 10 years down the track or what may be needed in terms of sport and recreation in the year 2020.
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