Page 3485 - Week 11 - Thursday, 15 November 2007
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That is something that we did at Royals, even though our income was dropping substantially from about 1984, when the club made some bad decisions in terms of extending the auditorium and things and the market was not quite there. We certainly supported charities and people in the club who had hard-luck stories and needed some assistance. But fundamentally, that club was there—in its articles of association—as a sporting club. That is why the vast majority of these clubs give a significant amount of their contribution to sport. Ms Tucker, I have been around; I had a lot to do with this when it first came in.
Mr Barr: It is Dr Foskey.
MR STEFANIAK: Along with Mr Quinlan, Mr Osborne and I think Mr Rugendyke. We came up with some pretty sensible ideas. What was the original proposal, Ms Tucker—I am sorry: I have got that on the brain, haven’t I? Dr Foskey. I have heard the figure of, I think, five per cent for charitable and community organisations and 2½ per cent for sport. That caused an absolute furore. Had that gone through even then—and the government contributions to sport were a lot more then than they have been since Mr Barr cut $40,000 out of the grants program—that would have absolutely decimated, or worse than decimated, junior sport, especially. That is because a lot of what the clubs give to sport goes to thousands of junior teams and Canberrans—thousands of boys and girls out there playing sport. We in Canberra are blessed by the club industry’s support of sport and by the fact that so many sporting organisations had the foresight to form and establish licensed clubs, fundamentally to promote their sport.
There are usually other sports that are affiliated with them. You talk about the Vikings; the Vikings are a group in question. Some 55 sporting organisations in the Tuggeranong Valley are supported by the Vikings rugby union club. Through the sports they also support some other activities as well, when they can. But their fundamental role is to support the sports that set them up.
They have made a magnificent contribution to our community. It is probably their contribution as much as anything else that has seen Canberra regularly have the highest participation rates. We regularly see success beyond our size in various sporting activities. Thousands of kids who otherwise would be doing nothing—and getting into trouble and probably having all sorts of social problems—engage in healthy physical outdoor activity or sometimes indoor activity.
Don’t underestimate the value of sport in assisting with social problems and people with social needs. It is one of the great therapies. It is one of the greatest things, especially with young people, to get people back on the track to a purposeful life—get them away from drugs and away from useless, aimless activities. If you cut back on sport—especially if you cut back on junior sport—and cut back on the ability of clubs to fund those activities, you will have so many more social problems that an extra $200 million in the ACT budget would not remotely resolve the situation.
Sport and recreation keep your kids, especially, active. They are good, positive activities where there are good role models, where they are trained. They have experience of teamwork, discipline, self-sacrifice and striving. They have a real goal. It is wonderful training for many people in our community, especially kids; and clubs do a very good job.
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