Page 891 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 27 February 2013
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were mega promises about more ovals, bigger grandstands and pools that will probably never be built. We know the history of sporting promises from this minister. We are still awaiting the pool promised for Gungahlin almost a decade ago.
Already, only four months after the election, word on the street has it that the government have started to back-pedal on their soccer facility for the south side, telling clubs that they cannot really afford to build it and suggesting that perhaps they could join the government in raising funds for it. That was not what was promised before the election. Before the election, if I recall correctly, there was major activity on the south side of Canberra down near Woden, where the government attended a sporting event and made these promises to get the sporting community on side. Now, only four months later, the back-pedalling occurs. What a surprise!
Whom do you believe? On the one hand, we have clubs telling us that ground fees are a huge impost. On the other, we have a minister who says they are a mere trifle. To add insult to injury, there were no warnings, no consultation about any fee increases. The fees listed on the website notionally expired in September last year. But if you go to the website today to book a ground, they are the fees that you are directed to look at.
One large club that I met with only recently provided me with their paperwork. It showed very clearly just how much the fees had gone up. For their sport, junior training fees per hour in 2010 were $1.70. In 2011 they jumped 135 per cent to $4.00. In 2012 they went up again another four per cent, to $4.15. And this year they are $6.40 an hour, an increase of 54 per cent from last year. In 2010 the fees were $1.70 an hour. In 2013, it is $6.40 an hour. The sum of $6.40 an hour may not be a big deal in some people’s expectations—obviously the minister is one of those—but for a club that has thousands and thousands of juniors, and is trying to set fees for junior sport, to have a 54 per cent increase makes it very hard for them to balance the books.
We keep getting calls from more and more clubs about the same issue. They are not happy. And, what is worse, there was no consultation, no advance notice and no public notice.
When clubs were to be told, or how, is anyone’s guess. How are clubs to budget when ground fees are not known, Mr Barr? How are clubs meant to budget? How are clubs expected to cover these charges when they have already set their fees, when they have registered their players and when winter sports are about to start, and they find that they have a 54 per cent increase—not the 50 per cent saving that the Liberal side was offering prior to the election, not a 50 per cent reduction, but a 54 per cent increase? And it is an increase of 54 per cent in one year, Mr Barr. Are we to have a sportsground-led recovery to reduce the ACT deficit?
We have just had the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission decide—
Mr Barr: Well, not at $6 an hour.
MR DOSZPOT: There are a lot of thousands of kids involved. I think that is part of the equation that you are missing, Mr Barr—just how much it does cost the community and the parents.
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