Page 4427 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
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who come to the ACT come for sporting reasons. It has also been estimated - and studies have been done both in Canberra and in the States - that, for every dollar spent by way of assistance for sporting events, some $7 to $20 can be expected to be generated back into the community.
In presenting this paper, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the other two committee members, Wayne Berry and Helen Szuty, both of whom have a great interest in sport. Wayne is a former sports Minister. I would also like to pay tribute to Judy Starcevich, our committee secretary, who coordinated the meetings and, at short notice, put the report together. I thank her for her efforts. Madam Speaker, this discussion paper has been presented to generate thought and to encourage a future Assembly to undertake a detailed study along the lines that we suggest. We suggest a number of areas which a future committee can look at, in which it can do a more detailed investigation as to the benefits of sport and the resultant tourism benefits. It can look at a number of things that perhaps need to be done in the ACT to further enhance the great potential Canberra has, and has shown in the past, to encourage people from the States to come here for sport.
I would also like to thank Mr Tony Naar, Ms Sue Baker-Finch and Ms Robyn Calder of the 2000 Committee, who met with us on 28 October. We had detailed discussions with that committee, and we found the meeting to be very useful. We are grateful to them. They made a number of suggestions by means of which the Assembly could complement and perhaps do some additional work to what they are doing. Obviously, some of what they are looking at in terms of staging the 2000 Games in Sydney and the spin-off to the ACT will complement the work of this committee. They briefed us on what Project 2000 involved and what they saw as being potential spin-offs to the ACT in relation to that.
One of the suggestions that we made was that a future Assembly committee look at - apart from what the 2000 Committee is doing and suggests as well - for starters, the overall coordination of events in the ACT. The ACT has a unit within the Tourism Commission which has played an important role to date in attracting events to the Territory. The 2000 Committee also has played a role in that area and will continue to do so. We note that in most States of Australia there are events bodies. These bodies have a role in assisting to attract both national and world events that will be of benefit to the particular State. In 1990 I had discussions with the Western Australian events body which had been very successful in terms of attracting a number of events to that State. It was funded by a combination of government and private enterprise funds. It was a relatively small body which certainly had much success. We need to look at whether the unit in the Tourism Commission is sufficient; whether it can be expanded; and what needs to occur in it in terms of the overall coordination of attracting events to the ACT. The States certainly have been in the game of doing that for some time. We do need really to push Canberra's case there. The committee sees potential for further work in relation to that.
The committee felt that a distinction obviously could be drawn between mass participation events and elite events. Elite events are events designed for selected participants. Mass participation events include the Masters Games, which Canberra will host in 1997. That is a mass event which will bring between 8,000 and 10,000 participants to the Territory. When you are talking about that, you should remember that usually those
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