Page 2707 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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left by an earlier Labor government. If we attain government in 2008, we will inherit another huge mess that we will have to fix up.
When you make cuts, target areas. There are some areas where it is rather stupid to cut because it actually ends up costing a lot more in dollars down the track. One of those areas is sport and recreation. I was horrified to see that the budget for sports grants is to be cut by $300,000. These grants cover about 240 different activities providing modest sums of money to thousands of participants, many of them junior participants, engaged in healthy activities designed to stave off childhood obesity and other health problems. If we do not do something about these problems now, we will have to fund them down the track.
To save a few dollars—and they are few—you are making cuts. The general grant of $2.4 million—in previous budgets you have not been keeping up with the CPI—is to be cut by $300,000, down to $2.1 million. I am now told that might be down to $1.8 million. I will look at that with interest. To look at some old figures, in the 2001-02 budget, the grant was $2,397,000. It is only about $2.4 million now. Your budget will reduce it to $2.1 million. That $300,000 is very much a false economy that may well cost $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, $50 million or $60 million in extra health costs down the track. On a lesser, although equally important, note—
Mr Hargreaves: Where did you get those figures?
Mr Barr: It is the Brendan Smyth multiplier effect.
MR STEFANIAK: It shows you have not got a clue. Equally important is the funding for teams in national competitions. That was initially $600,000, but in past years a few teams dropped out, and in recent years it has been $570,000. Whilst that is for elite athletes, there are thousands of kids in Canberra who look up to those elite athletes, who are their role models.
We should be providing extra money for women’s sport and encouraging more young girls to participate. The Capitals might well be affected. That $570,000 will be reduced to $450,000, but $200,000 is quarantined for the Brumbies and the Raiders. They have got agreements to 2009, and that is fine, but there are 12 other teams that exist on the smell of an oily rag and their funding will go from $370,000 to $250,000. We are talking minor sums here, but these are teams that do a lot in the community. They basically exist with very little assistance from government. They provide role models for thousands of Canberra kids and encourage young children to get into sport. Teams like the Capitals do a good job of encouraging teenage girls into sport.
Where are the cuts going to come from, minister? There is presently $100,000 for the Capitals; $30,000 for the Gunners—that is, men’s basketball; $45,000 for the Canberra Lakers; $45,000 for the Strikers, the women’s team; $45,000 for the Eclipse; $20,000 for the Comets; and $10,000 for the ACT AFL Rams. That is interesting. I remember giving them $20,000, so they have already been cut. The Canberra Dolphins, the men and women, have $12,500 each. Men’s and women’s orienteering have $20,000. Men’s ice hockey and men’s and women’s volleyball have $15,000 each.
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