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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 3077 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I would like to make a couple of comments, first of all, in relation to the right of all children and all young people to take part in sporting activities, even though they may have no hope of ever achieving anything like an Olympic standard in those activities. I consider that this is one aspect that our community must never lose sight of as we move towards the 2000 Olympics to be held in Sydney. I think there is a danger of an overconcentration on the elite end of sports, perhaps to the detriment of the community sporting activities and the kinds of activities that are now, and ought to be, available to all children, all young people - in fact, people of all ages - in our community.

I hope that it is not the case that, as we move closer to the Olympics, we see more and more resources poured into that elite end, at the cost of the rest of us, who bumble around, getting enormous enjoyment and health benefits out of some sort of sport, but without any show at all of ever representing the country or even the suburb. Mr Speaker, I think it is very important for the Sports Minister in the Territory to make sure that he maintains his effort at community sporting activity, at ensuring that all children have an opportunity to enjoy some sort of activity, perhaps to be good at it, but, if they are not good at it, that it is still an activity which they can carry on into the rest of their lives.

Mr Speaker, in point of actual fact, I enjoyed watching the Paralympics more than the Olympics. I make no bones about that. There were two reasons for that. The first, I think, was the difference in television coverage. There was simply no comparison. With the Olympics, what we saw largely, despite the valiant efforts of the Australian coverage, appeared to me to be an American tape. It was the case that some Australian competitors were simply never covered in the footage that we saw of particular events. It was extremely frustrating. Also, because it was a commercial station, one incident that particularly irritated me was that, having waited up half the night to watch the women's hockey team competing in a vital game, the only goal scored in the entire game, which was scored by the Australian women, was in a commercial break and we never saw it. I was furious.

Mr Speaker, I think you can compare that kind of coverage, where the Australians were largely overlooked on the taped footage, with the coverage of the Paralympians by the ABC. Not only were the Australians made a special feature, but all of their activities were well covered. The commentators knew our competitors and were able to point them out and point out their achievements. They were able to tell us about their history and so on. So, there is no doubt in my mind that for the 2000 Olympics, for those many millions of Australians who will not be able to make it, if the television coverage is done by the ABC - the national broadcaster - we will get an infinitely better deal. I certainly hope that that is the case, Mr Speaker. I think that it was a great shame for the Olympics to be commercialised in the way that they were. It did mean that many of us did not get as much enjoyment out of them as perhaps we should have, being taxpayers who contributed substantially to sending all those Olympians to Atlanta.

So, Mr Speaker, I would like to put those couple of comments on the record. I would also like to put on the record my complete lack of faith in the Government's ability to arrange appropriate bussing arrangements without the amendment which I have circulated to the Assembly.

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