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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 2300 ..

MR STEFANIAK

available for redistribution, as has the Cosmos money. Sadly, more recently we have seen the demise of the Cannons.

I am generally fairly happy with the way the money has been redistributed, but I make the point that I made last week during a debate on women's sport: when deciding on what to do with the extra additional money the minister and the government should look at the Canberra Eclipse, which has won the national women's soccer competition. They have extensive travel commitments and could well do with a further $20,000.

Also, the Belconnen Blue Devils have a senior and a 19s team. They are in a very similar type of competition to the ACT/New South Wales Rams, who are funded to the tune of $20,000-and I understand that funding continues, as it should. I would ask the government to look at this area.

In looking through the initiatives I could not fail to be reminded of one of the greatest botches I have seen with budgets and estimates. I refer, of course, to Volunteering ACT. The government has really put its foot in it. Volunteering ACT are funded $100,000 a year. At page 144 of Budget Paper No 3 we are told that "this initiative provides for continued support to volunteering activities in the ACT". For the uninitiated, for someone who has just dropped in from Mars, that looks good-they are giving $50,000 for the next three financial years to Volunteering ACT. There is nothing in 2006-2007. On the face of it, maybe that is something that should continue. But it does look like an initiative when, in fact, it was revealed in this Year of the Volunteer that that was a cut of $100,000.

I would like to put on record my appreciation of the excellent work that volunteers do in the ACT and the excellent work Volunteering ACT does in arranging volunteers. My two colleagues on the Estimates Committee have said a lot in relation to this issue, and that is on the public record. But I think it is important to highlight these points as we go through this process.

Volunteering ACT did an excellent job during the bushfires. This is one of the more recent things they have done and it is another reason why it is quite perplexing to see this government cut their funding from $100,000 to $50,000. They organised a lot of the volunteers. In fact, Mr Pratt and I helped them out as volunteers during the weeks after the bushfires. They had teams of volunteers. Mr Speaker, I was pleased to see about 15 people from my old club, Royals, turn up on a Saturday to help in our electorate, not their own. There were other teams out in Weston Creek. There were all manner of volunteers, not only from organised sporting groups but individuals.

I am highly impressed by the way Volunteering ACT operates out of the old Norths Rugby Club, which is now an annexe of the Labor Club-that is a good initiative on the part of the club and it is all the more reason that we are utterly amazed that a Labor government is cutting their funding. So this is probably one of the unfortunate examples of negative initiatives in this budget.

Mr Smyth's amendment, which I will also speak to, sensibly makes an alteration. We have, of course, seen alterations in past budgets where spin doctors have been hired for government departments. I think it is a sensible amendment that is worthy of

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