Page 3814 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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role as Speaker in this place, I am developing every day a greater affinity for those who seek to ensure fair play.
Despite the importance of referees and umpires, there are frequently shortages of volunteers for games across Canberra, and the turnover amongst referees is often high. This can be for a range of reasons, but the one that concerns me is the issue of abuse from parents on the sidelines. Of course, most parents are wonderfully supportive of their children playing sport and understand that it is, after all, a game for enjoyment. But the minority of poorly behaved parents can damage the experience for everyone.
Leagues across Canberra in each sport have taken steps to reduce the unfortunate incidence of official abuse, and I commend them for doing so. I believe that the government can also take steps to support the officials and encourage people in the ACT. I would ask the government to consider the commendable program by the Queensland government titled “Positive or it’s pointless”, which worked in conjunction with sporting clubs of all codes to embrace the principles of integrity, respect, fun, responsibility and excellence in junior sport.
I would like to finish on this section by acknowledging the volunteers, both those that umpire and those that play any other roles that are essential to keeping clubs going, because it is a critical role. I am always particularly inspired by those people who remain in a sport long after their kids stop playing. You often see that in people who have been around for a long period of time. They say, “Yes, my kid played up until such and such year, but then I just stayed involved.” I always think that is a particularly significant contribution.
In my own sport of triathlon, I am aware of particularly the coaches of the juniors who themselves do not even have kids in the sport but are dedicated to providing that really clear opportunity and the hours and hours of dedication they put into it, taking leave to take the kids away to national competitions or to run training camps up at Thredbo and the like. It is a tremendous contribution that is mirrored across many sports in the ACT.
The last area I would like to touch on in my remaining time is facilities. Again, they have been much discussed today. The minister took a great deal of his time to list the facilities that the government has been involved in delivering. That was a good list. I still am concerned, and this is a discussion we have been having for some time now, that I do not have a really clear sense that there is a particular road map or a particularly clear understanding of the sporting facilities we have in the ACT and where the gaps are, both in terms of particular facilities and in terms of geography. This is an issue that is coming up right across sports, not just junior sports, and it is one that I will continue to pursue.
I noticed that last week in the paper there was a report about a range of stakeholders getting together at Canberra Stadium to discuss the future of sport in the ACT, and I look forward to catching up with some of those stakeholders when the sitting week is finished to find out what discussions went on in that meeting and what resolutions they came to. My sense from the report in the paper is that it is an ongoing process, but I would be interested to see where the discussions have got to so far.
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