Page 742 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 29 March 2006
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community-building exercise of creating a new city there is a requirement for good sporting facilities. I am sure people complained that Canberra was boring then, as they do now. Sporting facilities were seen as one way of overcoming that. I have no doubt that all ACT schoolchildren—and even recreational walkers who do not participate in organised sport but use our excellent walking trails and nature parks—and cyclists who use the cycle tracks reap the benefits of this small infrastructure. I have read somewhere that the ACT measures up very well in terms of general physical health. The role of sport and recreation in that is undeniable.
I am not going to talk about the health benefits of sport today because I spoke about them yesterday. I acknowledge pretty well everything Mr Mulcahy said on that matter; I think that is understood in our community—it is a given. I also believe that the ACT government’s commitment to sport and recreation has been quite solid. Even though Mr Stefaniak’s motion uses the words “limited part of the ACT budget, approximately 0.4 per cent”, I have not heard too many sporting organisations complaining about the dollar allocation, although no doubt they would like more. We would all like more.
To assist the individual’s participation in society we know that sport and recreation has a social aspect as well. It helps people link with their community and can contribute to a decrease in antisocial behaviour, primarily through its role as a diversionary activity. Some organisations have recognised that. It is well known that involving young indigenous children, for instance, in football and other team sports is a good strategy—and we benefit because we end up getting good footballers. Out of involvement in sport and recreation come the personal benefits of increased self-esteem, self-awareness and improved quality of life. Indeed the sport and recreation industry contributes to community development, capacity building and self-reliance.
As Mr Stefaniak pointed out, the small number of dollars spent on sport in the ACT budget has an enormous roll-on effect and along the way gathers an army of volunteers who get there early in the morning to help. Just watch what happens when a triathlon is organised on the shores of the lake at Yarralumla. Planning starts days before; the plastic ring fencing appears and tents go up. There is a whole bunch of people who, although not paid to do that, do it because they love the sport. Many of them do not even participate. Some of them are not even related to the participants but they enjoy being there. The small number of dollars spent on sport have an enormous impact and we get a lot of value for those bucks.
There is no doubt—and Mr Stanhope referred to this—that the sporting group is an active lobby group and probably a very successful one. We only have to look at our excellent sporting facilities to see that. But it fears it will be subject to similar cuts to those in other areas of community activity. I want to make it quite clear that, whilst I do not think sport should be given preference over other community services like health, education, disability and aged care in our budget, we need to recognise the role sport can play for all those sectors—that it is part of everything else we do. Education would be nothing without sport and physical education. We might be educating a bunch of unhealthy couch potatoes.
Primary health care involves exercise, and people with a disability benefit hugely from being involved in sporting activities. Let us make sure we do not put recreation above those other needs. I do not think it is a dollar matter; the issue is about coordination.
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