Page 1170 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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(b) consider alternative options, other than the five ovals in the original report, including the preferred option identified by the clubs in new growth areas of Canberra, and to include ACT athletics associations in those deliberations; and
(c) negotiate with the Commonwealth Government on behalf of ACT athletics clubs for better access to existing quality facilities at the Australian Institute of Sport.
As we have all acknowledged many times in this Assembly, sport is a serious business for many Canberra families. We have a very high participation rate for people in both formal and informal sport, and we have that because of the many opportunities available to families to get their children involved. We know that if we get children playing sport at an early age, they not only improve their health outcomes in later life but some of them go on to be very successful in sport as a chosen career.
Probably there is no better example of opportunities for participation than the little athletics movement. In Canberra we are very lucky to have a raft of families who provide thousands and thousands of volunteer hours in a number of clubs. They provide support for a wide range of sports, from running to long jump, steeple chase, shot-put and javelin. Their needs are quite specific. We have clubs dotted throughout Canberra, clubs such as Woden, Weston Creek, Corroboree, Belconnen west, Ginninderra, Gungahlin, Calwell, Lanyon and Tuggeranong as well as several areas adjoining the territory in Yass, Queanbeyan, Braidwood, Goulburn, Cooma and elsewhere down the coast and the southern tablelands.
When these thousands of people in hundreds of families heard in July last year that the sports minister had offered a commitment of $4.5 million for a synthetic southside track, they were delighted that at last the government had listened to them and that their sport was to get some assistance. But that was only part of the news. As with so many of this government’s and this minister’s announcements, they too often miss the mark. And they have once again in this instance.
I am sad to say that, because on the very basic facts as I spoke about before, it does seem to be a very good initiative. It is in the detail that it suffers and it suffers very badly. At the heart of it is this government’s commitment to deliver much-needed infrastructure for our athletics community. As with all infrastructure projects and elite sports competitions, if you want to run any sort of quality competition—whether it is a regional little athletics meet through to an Olympic selection trial—there are certain requirements you have to meet.
Things such as orientation to the sun, wind exposure, drainage, existing services and public amenity all have to be considered. So it was important and appropriate that the government should consult widely, call in the experts and assess all of the options. As I have highlighted, we have a number of clubs with a varying range of facilities at their home grounds. For major events, the AIS facility has provided the necessary venue to date. But with so many members on the south side and with new suburbs on stream in Molonglo, it made sense to examine additional facilities for that part of town.
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