Page 746 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 29 March 2006
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at all. It is something that does not, I submit, compromise the government whatsoever in its functional review.
As I indicated earlier, the office of Sport and Recreation ACT includes about 20 people. The government has ample evidence for it to make up its mind on that preliminary point, putting all the others to one side at this stage.
Mr Stanhope’s self-congratulatory amendments, and that is exactly what they are, obviously will be successful. We have a pair in operation. So there you go! All the first paragraph would say is:
… notes:
(a) the considerable benefit of sport and recreation to the Canberra community;
(b) the strong and ongoing commitment to sport and recreation, at all levels in the community, by the ACT Government;
Then the self-congratulatory part:
notes that the ACT Government will continue to provide its outstanding support for sport and recreation, from community-based teams and organisations to the elite teams that proudly represent the Territory in national and international competitions.
That completely turns around the motion, which is obviously the government’s intent. It does not do the one basic thing which the government can do, even having regard totally to its functional review, and that is not split up the very tiny office of sport, recreation and racing. It can do other things which might assist that organisation. The ACTSPORT submission, for example, indicates that maybe other areas relevant to sport could go into that. It is a very simple motion. It deliberately does not even try to tie the government’s hand on things like funding. Quite clearly, the government needs to have very strong regard to what is being said in this debate.
One point which the Chief Minister makes—his motion probably seeks to support this—but which is painfully wrong is the government’s outstanding support. There has been bipartisan support for sport and recreation, but I correct him at this stage on one of his figures. He mentioned that in the last budget of the previous government there was $5.6 million or something spent on sport and rec. I have got out the budget papers. When one looks at them, it is close to $14 million. It is $13.946 million.
Active lifestyle services, which is supporting the sport and recreation activities in the ACT through various initiatives, has $9.922 million. Then we have the ACT Academy of Sport, $1.7 million. Then we have the administration of grants, including the grants program, $2.323 million. That comes very close to $14 million, on my calculation. At present, it seems the budget is about $12 million or $13 million. We have heard in previous budget debates in this Assembly, and you will note, that the figure for the Academy of Sport was $1.7 million in the last year of the previous government. That was cut, as were the number of athletes, several years ago to $1.2 million. I remember making that point.
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