Page 4914 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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you do not need, you will see lots of good local infrastructure policies and service delivery policies from the Canberra Liberals.
That is the difference. There is the difference and he has finally cottoned onto it. He has cottoned onto the fact that if you pursue dumb projects, if you do not manage your costs, as this government has not and proposes not to, you cannot actually deliver for the community. So we can understand why he is tender on this, but this is important to the community.
I want to go to the issue of cost, which Mr Barr dismisses. It really is dismissive. There are many of us in the community who would remember from our own childhoods sometimes the difficulties in accessing organised sport. People probably do not realise that many kids do not get to access organised sport in the way that they probably want to, because of costs. When you have got, say, two or three kids who all want to play sport and you have got maybe a summer sport and a winter sport, there are the registration fees and there are the footy boots, which tend to have to be bought every year as the kids are growing, there is the equipment that goes with that. If you are playing footy, it might be the headgear and the mouth guard—all sorts of costs. These costs do add up, and we understand that. We have been listening.
One of the things that I cannot abide is the idea that kids will not be able to access sport because they cannot afford it, and that is not something I am going to stand by and allow to happen. I do not think it should happen in a place like Canberra. I think that in a place like Canberra we should actually be making it as accessible as possible. They are the kinds of policies we are going to have. We will do everything we can to make it accessible, whether that is through upgrading facilities or whether that is through managing the finances better so that you can return some of that money directly to the community so that they can afford these things.
Surely we can all agree on that. Surely the Labor Party should not be denigrating a plan that would actually give more kids access to sport, to give poor kids access to sport, to make it a little easier on those families who are putting their kids through sport but who feel those cost pressures as a result. I commend Mr Doszpot for what is a very important issue.
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (4.18): The ACT government is serious about community sport and that is why we established the active 2020 plan. The active 2020 plan is a long-term strategic plan for sport and active recreation in the ACT and region. It provides a blueprint upon which sport and recreation in the ACT community will be nurtured and promoted over the period 2011 to 2020. The plan promotes partnerships between industry and government and investment in long-term, sustainable outcomes. Importantly, active 2020 allows for long-term planning by sport and recreation associations in the ACT and the region.
The plan encompasses seven fundamental goals that have been identified as the key strategic priorities. They are: maximise community engagement, that is, participation, in sport and active recreation; greater acknowledgement and promotion of the health and education and social benefits of sport and active recreation, which Mr Rattenbury was talking about previously; increase capacity and capability of sport and active
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