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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3073 ..

MS McRAE (continuing):

We know that, for every sportsperson in the ACT who has got to an international meet, there has been a lifetime of backup from parents, family, the community and governments that have provided the facilities. The support has usually been unstintingly given - and usually with no monetary costs attached - by the parents, the community, the coaches, the sporting groups and the government that has put in the facilities.

They have gone overseas with, no doubt, a very large level of financial support from and sacrifice by their own families, as we saw at the reception when we farewelled them. The families were trying to get over there to support them and see them perform. But here they are put in this incredible position where, to go to their own parade and for this Government to guarantee a crowd, the ACT Council for the Australian Paralympic Federation has to ask for money. I find that an absolutely sad indictment, and it was added to by another insult which we saw played out in the newspapers last week. Not only will the Government not come good with subsidies for our 4,000 schoolchildren again; but, as we saw last week played out in the press, $9,000 was all that the disabled swimmers needed to keep on with their program. They were told at the end of the program, "Oh, no, you were never entitled to that money. It was a pilot program". How stingy can you get? ACT Swimming now has to carry $9,000 worth of extra expenses to ensure that young disabled swimmers can get onto their program.

These two events show the true colour of this Government. It is not willing to put its money where its mouth is. Of course we all support these swimmers. Of course we all support these athletes. Of course we all support the families and the communities that are behind these sportspersons. There is nothing nicer than basking in the reflected glory of the people with disabilities and the extraordinary athletes that we actually saw going to the Olympic Games, especially when we know that they come from our own electorate. Nothing gives you a bigger thrill than being able to say, "They lived in Higgins" or "They lived in Page" or "We knew their family". But a couple of nasty details have slipped through. On the one hand, we were all cheered, buoyed and carried away by the sheer bravery of a lot of these people and the tenacity, the skill and the level of support that has gone into their achievements so that all of us can collectively bask in that. But who on earth sat there in the back room counting the miserable pennies, saying, "No, we cannot give $9,000 to the disabled swimmers" and, worse than that, "How dare Noel Baxendell complain!", just because he was once a member of the Labor Party?

May I, here and now, call for something that perhaps the Canberra Times could do. Why not simply ask every correspondent to the Canberra Times to state their name, their birth date, their address, their party affiliation and every club they have ever belonged to. Then Mrs Carnell would not have to ring someone at home to see which club he belonged to because she happens to dislike what he said in the paper. There was a rejoinder to that letter. The fact of the matter is that a subsidy - $9,000 - that was once provided for disabled swimmers to continue to be able to get onto a program was taken away. That support is now being carried by a swimming club which itself depends on volunteers and on funds being donated and raised. This is the detail that has slipped through. That was one minor detail. That skirmish will continue, no matter how much name-calling goes on.

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