Page 1164 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 May 2006
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they have about getting out and doing things. They were assisted to upgrade from the easy to the hard tracks. We did things like that.
One of the great things that we did, and I am pleased the current government has continued it, was to establish RecLink, using sport as a link to kids who were not so interested in their community, and particularly were not so interested in their schooling, to try and get them back in. The van goes out with the gear on board and people talk to the kids initially about kicking a footy or playing some sort of sport, but in the hope of getting these kids engaged so that they get, firstly, better health options and, secondly, through that, better educational and social outcomes too.
There is a lot that one can do with fitness and that is why this week is very important. It is not just about healthy weight and a healthy heart. I think it really should be healthy weight, healthy heart and perhaps healthy lifestyle, because there are opportunities here that go well beyond the heart in improving the general fitness and health of ordinary Canberrans. So there is much to do.
In the context of the Costello functional review and health funding, I hope the government are not going to be short-sighted and cut programs like Healthpact and health promotion if they are serious about keeping people out of the health care system, in particular out of acute care, where it costs about $1,000 to spend a day in hospital; it is expensive. What we have to do is start with the new generations coming after us. Mr Barr spoke yesterday about generations X and Y. Some of those generations may not live as long as the baby boomers because they are more sedentary and they are less interested in sport. That is a huge problem for us because we in the ACT already know about the huge health bill we have got coming. But, if we are short-sighted, if we cut those programs, if we waste another day—let alone the five years that have been wasted over the program that Mr Stefaniak wanted to put in place in 2001—we are making a rod for our own backs, for the health system and for the ACT budget. But, more importantly and worse than that, we are limiting these people’s lives, and the danger for us is to have generations that come after us that will have shorter lives than ours. I think that is a really disturbing trend.
So well done to the Heart Foundation. I wish them the best with healthy weight, healthy heart. Indeed, well done to Ms MacDonald for running the breakfast on Friday. I intend to drop in at some stage, depending on babies and waking times early in the morning. But it is important that we all get this message out and it is something that we really have to do together. I do not believe that we should be complacent about it. I certainly do not believe that we can take the risk of cutting any of the funding that promotes good health and good lifestyle, and I certainly do not believe that we should be limiting people’s ability to access any sort of fitness that is currently run by the ACT government by cuts that may be imposed to sport and rec, to health, to ageing and to education through the effects of the Costello report and the economic mismanagement of the Stanhope Labor government.
I hope the government understand that this is a real investment in the future. It is an area about which you can honestly say that a little bit more now will save them an enormous amount of money into the future, and they really should consider very, very wisely what they will do with the funding to health promotion programs between now and the budget.
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