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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1988 ..

MR HARGREAVES

The government also provides funding for these national league teams:

Canberra Capitals, women's basketball, $100,000;

Canberra Strikers, women's hockey, $40,000;

Canberra Eclipse, women's soccer, $40,000.

I should note that the majority of sport and recreation organisations in the ACT are not gender based and provide for participation by both sexes. Furthermore, many sporting groups that had gender divisions, for example, hockey and lawn bowls, have amalgamated to increases efficiency, share resources and provide common strategic directions. This is an important trend in improving the quality and quantity of women's participation.

Mr Speaker, in bringing this matter to public attention through the Assembly today, I urge the sporting peak bodies, such as the AFL in the ACT and New South Wales, rugby union and league, cricket and all the major sporting codes to take a leaf out of the book of ACT Hockey. ACT Hockey treats women's and men's participation in sport equally. The result, Mr Speaker, speaks for itself, with massive followings for the national teams of both genders. Indeed, the women's Australian side enjoys international acclaim greater than that of the men.

Can the same be said for the Australian women's cricket team? No, it can't. And yet it enjoys an international reputation. People just don't hear about it. And the advertising and sponsorship dollar doesn't flow as a result. This needs to change.

I urge the peak bodies to have a change in policy focus and a resulting change in resource distribution. They should not neglect 50 per cent of possible participants in their sport. They should accept their responsibility for that promotion and get behind women's and girls' participation in their sports.

Let us break the image of sport being the province of the archetypal Aussie male. The time has come for change, and these bodies have the power to effect that change or stand condemned for abandoning half the people in our town and indeed for losing an opportunity of leading the nation in removing this discrimination.

Mr Speaker, no sport, or aspect of sport, can survive and thrive if it's starved of media oxygen. It is significant, and should be acknowledged, that the media have now discovered that the results in women's sport, particularly at the national level, are newsworthy and worth reporting. I wish to acknowledge the coverage by WIN TV of the women's AFL ACT representative team's tilt at the championship.

I need to acknowledge that the Canberra Times has also presented coverage of results in women's sport on a regular basis in recent times, and I would encourage them to continue to do so. It should be on the public record that Tim Gavel of the ABC and the ABC presenters have always been willing to give coverage. Without their support, women's sport would languish behind.

On a final note, regarding women's AFL, Mr Speaker: I'd like to share my hopes for the future. I dream of the day when the grand final of the women's AFL in Canberra is a curtain-raiser to the men's grand final at Manuka Oval. This will only be achieved,

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