Page 1162 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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important week. The whole concept of healthy weight, healthy heart is something that has recently been proven by, I think, Queensland doctors who have found and can prove the link between obesity and poor heart health. For a nation that many would say is second only to the Americans in terms of obesity, we have certainly got a huge problem in front of us.
Although the minister and Ms MacDonald claim that the ACT government is doing much, the ACT government has languished on many of these issues for the last five years through a succession of health ministers, the Chief Minister and Minister Corbell, who actually abandoned this field for such a long time. I am pleased to hear the new Minister for Health has an interest in this area and we will judge her in the coming years.
The first thing the incoming education minister, Mr Corbell, did in 2001 was to cancel a program that would have monitored kids’ weights and kids’ fitness in our schools—the very first thing he did. He shut down the tender—did not like it, did not like the concept—that Mr Stefaniak had come up with, and indeed that a local sporting luminary, and indeed the first chair of the Healthpact board, Robert de Castella, was strongly promoting. Five years ago he was saying that what we have to do is monitor the health of kids so that we know where they are going and what trends are there. They missed it.
Sport in school, which again Mr Stefaniak has been a strong supporter of, has had only lukewarm support from the Labor Party for as long as I have been in this place. Ms MacDonald mentioned the kids at play program—she had the gall to put it in the motion—the program that apparently is ending at the end of the year. Ms MacDonald talked about how wonderful it is that people go off with little vans and talk to kids. They actually had another two vans ready to come on line—double the impact of the program, from two to four. But they have not put those vans on the road and they have not recruited any staff, because of uncertainty, indeed again coming out of the Costello functional review, over their future. Excuses were made.
Three months ago we had the then sport and recreation minister Mr Quinlan saying what a wonderful program it was, what it had achieved, how fantastic and great it was. Then there is all this uncertainty because the deliverers of the program are blamed, apparently, for overspending. Sport and recreation are blamed for not managing their budget. But the reality is that the people who now deliver the kids at play program are uncertain about their future. Perhaps the minister can get up in the two minutes that will be left when I finish to simply say that the program will survive—because that is what we want to hear.
This government has been shutting down ovals. Mr Pratt has been talking for a long time about ovals having been shut down and the loss of that community facility. The most basic thing you need—
Mr Barr: There was a drought.
MR SMYTH: to enjoy sport is a place to play. Mr Barr chips in that it is called a drought. Well, what have you done to drought proof the ACT? Our concept is to put a dam up so we can keep our ovals fresh and green. You are just sitting back and saying, “It’s all too hard; it is a drought.”
Mr Barr: Dams don’t make it rain, Mr Smyth.
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