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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2853 ..

excellent job in identifying, training and assisting talented young Canberrans in a wide range of sporting and recreational pursuits. It has assisted on an annual basis anything up to a maximum of about 275, and in more recent times it has been 265. I think that figure has been fairly static for probably three or four years.

However, I was somewhat concerned to see in this budget the funding for the academy. I wonder how long it will be before programs are going to be cut or indeed the number of athletes’ serviced dropped. I think some $1.43 million is spent on the academy, according to figures provided to us in estimates, and about $190,000 of that comes from outside revenue that the academy itself generates through sponsorship. That is fairly normal and has been the case in the past.

When I checked the 2001-2002 budget I saw there was an appropriation for the academy of about $1.9 million of which $1.7 million was government money—half a million dollars extra. Time has marched on. I know the academy is under some pressure. There is some concern that during the course of this government there have not been any increases in funding. I do not think the CPI has been applied to the academy. There would seem, when one looks at that 2001-02 budget, that there has been a cut in academy spending. I know there is real concern that some programs—the cost of delivering which increasing—will have to be cut simply because the strain the academy is under cannot go on for too much longer. That is something that this government really does have to address as a matter of urgency.

The academy produces some excellent results. When we go back over past Olympics, three of the Olympic gold medal winners in Atlanta were from our local academy. It has produced a huge number of athletes who have done exceptionally well in the Olympic Games and other competitions, as well as in national teams competing on the international stage. The academy punches above its weight and has delivered some excellent results to Canberra.

In sport and recreation it is crucially important never to do anything that does not give proper support to the grassroots, the people who are out there playing sport for enjoyment. They are not stars, they are never going to be stars, they get enjoyment out of it, and we want to encourage more and more people to be active. That is an absolute priority. At the same time, to neglect those more elite athletes, and athletes who aspire to be elite, is a wrong move. I put those concerns on record. That concerns me somewhat, and I am very concerned to see what will happen to the programs and the number of athletes that are sustained there.

Talking about grassroots and encouraging the grassroots, I have some other concerns too. We still get about $150,000 worth of special programming money from the Commonwealth. About half of that goes towards assisting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in specific sporting programs and the other $75,000 goes elsewhere. Several years ago, about $400,000 was spent on those programs, and some of those programs were quite effective. I note in the past few years that money seems not to be there. Whilst there are a couple of commendable programs in this budget, I am very concerned that there seems to be not as much money available for as wide a range of grassroots programs as there has been in the past.

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