Page 632 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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Mr Doszpot: How many players play beach volleyball in Canberra, Mr Barr?
MR BARR: There are 3,700 registered volleyballers in the territory.
Mr Doszpot: Beach volleyball.
MR BARR: Beach volleyball competitions have 1,200 players spread across a number of inefficient facilities and not particularly high standard facilities. All of these questions were assessed through the business case development and through the grant application assessment process.
What is particularly disappointing for the sport of volleyball is these snide political attacks that have come as a result of this particular application. Volleyball went through a three-year process. They went into a competitive grants process having developed a competitive business case aligning with a number of other partner sports to develop a facility in Canberra that is similar to ones that operate successfully right across Australia.
This will be a wonderful benefit not only for volleyball but for a number of other sports and sport and recreation activities in a larger precinct that supports a diverse range of sport and recreation. It is a good outcome for the sport and sport and recreation more broadly. (Time expired.)
MADAM SPEAKER: Supplementary question, Mr Wall.
MR WALL: Minister, what are the criteria for prioritising sports funding among local groups?
MR BARR: The annual sports grants program has a number of different elements. There is operational assistance that is provided either on a triennial or an annual basis for, from memory, about 70 sport and recreation organisations. There is a facility upgrade funding allocation within the sports grants program. There is a capital works upgrade funding stream within the annual sport and recreation grants programs.
From time to time, we have targeted these particular grants programs for specific upgrades. In recent times—I think perhaps before Mr Wall was in the Assembly—there was a particular focus on drought proofing of sport and recreation facilities. In recent budgets we have had a focus on allowing sport and recreation organisations who have assets that are not publicly owned, but are in fact are privately owned by sport and recreation organisations, to be able to apply to the government for grants for asset maintenance and repair, particularly for ageing infrastructure that requires additional upgrade. Examples of that include synthetic hockey fields being resurfaced at the end of their life.
So the government looks across the wide range of needs within the sport and recreation sector—at owned assets, assets that are owned by the government and assets that are owned by sport and recreation organisations, and on occasion by private sector providers. We welcome a broad range of applications assessed against assessment criteria that are outlined in the application packs that are made available each year as part of the sports grants program.
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