Page 1098 - Week 04 - Thursday, 22 April 2021
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This motion also calls on the government to examine the barriers to participation for Canberrans from low income households and report on mechanisms and possible next steps to combat these barriers. Identifying where Canberrans are slipping through the cracks and not being given their due opportunity to play is the first big step towards ensuring that everyone can get on the field, the court, the rink or the ring.
My motion is a response to the feedback that we had from the community. It builds on the parliamentary and governing agreement and it fulfills the promises that the ACT Greens made to the community.
At the risk of tooting our own horn, I want to draw this Assembly’s attention to, quite frankly, the mandate that we ACT Greens enjoy now that we have tripled our presence here in the Assembly. I draw attention to this because it indicates that a fair chunk of the community liked what we had to say in our comprehensive policy platform.
Our sports and recreation policy was closely informed by extensive consultation with community stakeholders, who overwhelmingly made it clear to us that they wanted a clear, long-term plan for sports and recreation in the ACT. It is no accident that the Greens came through with flying colours on the Coalition of Major Participation Sports election scorecard, satisfying all four key objectives with our election commitments.
A key concern for a lot of the stakeholders that I have spoken to over the last 18 months, and particularly the last six since my election to this place, is the feeling of a lack of transparency in sports funding. When sports bodies do not know when they are due for their next facility upgrade, it fosters an environment where individual groups feel forced to come cap in hand to ask for that funding. I also worry whether the successful funding of sports groups depends more on the strengths of their lobbying than on their needs.
A peak representative body for sport and recreation groups brings everybody to the table and it provides strategic and overarching advice to government. It creates an environment conducive to the cooperation that sporting organisations have exemplified.
In all of my conversations with stakeholders, it was extremely heartening to hear how often Canberra sports groups would consult to share their facilities and plans so that other groups would not have to duplicate unnecessary work, be it sharing advice for the development plans or coordinating the shared use of fields and sheds. They have made it clear to me that competition should be lively on the field but, to keep it that way, sporting groups really do band together and look after each other.
A peak body would formalise that strong spirit of solidarity among sporting groups and create the space for them to share knowledge and keep on-field competition as vibrant and vigorous as possible. Our sporty Canberran community can be reassured that, with a peak body in place, their organisation stays on the radar of government rather than falling through the cracks.
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