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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1996 ..
MR STANHOPE
(continuing):Similarly, on national standards certainly, I have to say that since Prime and Capital dropped local news I don't watch them nearly as much as I used to. They don't cover local sport any more anyway; or local anything in fact. So I can't speak for those, but certainly WIN, I know, in its sports news has been increasingly generous in its coverage of women's sport.
But I think, if one were to do an analysis, one would nevertheless find that the Canberra Times is probably only devoting 20 to 25 per cent of its print space to women's sport. I wouldn't mind betting that local television stations are still struggling to get their percentage coverage of women's sport up to even that level. Actually it's probably even less; at times it drops to less than 10 per cent, which is a reflection of course on the coverage of all that football, all the men's golf, all the cricket, and all those male dominated sports. They'll cover the men's football, they'll cover the men's cricket, they'll cover the men's golf to a far greater extent of course than women's sport is covered.
At the heart of the issue that Mr Hargreaves raises in his motion is that we have got so far to go in ensuring equality of opportunity for women. They don't get the media coverage; they don't get the sponsorship. It's a vicious circle: no media coverage, therefore no sponsorship; no sponsorship, therefore no capacity to develop the sport and get media coverage. It's a vicious circle that goes round and round, and we need to break that circle of a lot of discrimination against women. I congratulate Mr Hargreaves.
MR SPEAKER
: The member's time has expired.MR STEFANIAK
(11.43): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to withdraw my amendment, which will enable Mr Hargreaves to move his amendments.Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
MRS BURKE
(11.43): I have just a few brief notes. I would like to thank Mr Hargreaves for bringing this on in private members business today. I also thank you for your invitation, Mr Hargreaves, to watch the AFL. It's very tempting, but of course it isn't the game they play in heaven, you see; so I might have to turn you down on that one.Mr Hargreaves
: You haven't been there and you mightn't go there.MRS BURKE
: I think that's very out of order. However, it certainly is an admirable achievement. I would certainly like to add my congratulations on this very credible performance. It is an extremely tough game, if watching the guys is anything to go by then. I know little to nothing about AFL, but I can tell it takes determination. Ms Dundas can probably tell me lots about all of this, which I'm sure she'll do in a moment.Women's activity in sport is certainly one worthy of greater support. I'm sure that some of us in this place would be aware of recent ABS findings regarding young women's health. I think that we need to do all that we can at every level, and indeed go further. I applaud Mr Hargreaves' proposed amendments. Because this isn't a political football-no pun intended-we need to promote and accelerate the cause of women's sport amongst young people, and it is really important.
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