Page 4192 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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We are also seeking to increase women’s leadership in sport. Our participation and leadership program offers assistance to clubs and organisations who wish to support participation, education and training activities that enhance opportunities for women and girls to participate in the ACT. It also seeks to increase the abilities of females to take on leadership roles in the sector. This is further supported by the ACT government diversity register, which seeks to improve women’s access to board vacancies.
I support the motion’s call for continued work with community and professional sporting organisations to promote programs that deliver women’s sports and I look forward to working with clubs in my community, like the Gungahlin Jets, to find ways of achieving this.
There is clear evidence the government is fulfilling its obligation to improve access to sport and community participation for women, and, speaking to this motion here today, I encourage my colleagues to support the continuing efforts of the ACT government in promoting positive cultural change by voting in favour of the motion.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women) (3.58): I thank Ms Cody for bringing this motion here today for us to have a conversation about. Over recent years as a country, as well as here in the ACT, we have witnessed extraordinary growth in the profile of women’s sport.
We have seen our women’s Rugby Sevens team take home gold at Rio. We had a new super netball league, with matches broadcast live free-to-air. We witnessed the Matildas taking on and beating the best in the world in front of sell-out crowds and we had a new national women’s AFL competition come into reality. We have had a great year again for women’s sport, both here and nationally.
But this has not happened by accident. The ACT government has continued the goal to build more support and opportunities for women’s and girls’ participation in sport and recreation, and we have set this direction for a couple of reasons. Participation data consistently shows that girls move away from sport in their teens, and we need to turn this trend around as a means to better physical activity and mental health as they move into adulthood.
Sport offers a vehicle to improve equity and culture around gender right across our community. There are so many great leaders and role models in our local sports community, and the government believes that, with their help, we can reach out and empower more people to understand and embrace the need for gender equity.
But we cannot take our eyes off this for one moment. We have to keep striving forward and making improvements and continue with the momentum that has already been created around women in sport. This has been a consistent priority of the ACT government and, of course, mine as Minister for Sport and Recreation and Minister for Women.
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