Page 2360 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 August 2006
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The government should activate that important program that will test students, inform their parents of those tests and provide for students to be tested every 12 months to monitor their fitness. I am concerned about the increasing level of obesity. We need these important programs in our school system. Schools cannot do everything but there is a lot that they can do. We must build on the benefits of mandating compulsory physical activity, but a lot more must be done. Physical assessment programs are used very effectively in some non-government schools. The state school system in Queensland is now starting to use these important programs.
I am concerned about a couple of other disturbing things that have occurred over the past few years in the term of this government. The former government introduced an oval maintenance program that was carried out in conjunction with school communities. I know we have had a drought but in 2003 only one hectare of the 55 hectares of category four low-maintenance ovals located largely near primary schools were maintained. This government ceased watering all those ovals and a number of the category three neighbourhood ovals where junior football and cricket teams trained and played.
In areas like Gungahlin it led to a number of teams not having ovals on which to play matches, which is a real problem. To recommence watering those ovals and to bring them back would cost about $10,000 a hectare. I was pleased to see in this budget that at least 40 hectares were to be brought back. Experts like Keith McIntyre said that if those ovals had been watered, even with stage 3 water restrictions in place, more of them might have been saved for use by children, thus assisting in the combating of obesity.
That was something the government did not do, despite warnings by ACTSport, by me and by a number of other people, and despite a lot of good advice from renowned experts, ranging from Keith McIntyre to other horticulturalists in the area, who showed the government how it could be done. At least the government will not do that again. When those ovals are brought back they should be planted with available grasses that do not require as much water. I commend that option to the government.
The decision to discontinue the watering of ovals was a particularly bad one, as was the decision to take away the tender for physical fitness testing in schools. This government has a big problem with its budget. I have made a few suggestions about how the government can cut its funding in a few areas. In question time Mr Smyth rattled off a whole swag of areas where the government can save money. However, it would be counterproductive for the government to cut back funding in the sports area.
An amount of $300,000 is to be taken out of a pretty small grants program. The budget reveals that funding will go from $2.4 million down to $2.1 million. It is interesting that the sports budget is only $2.4 million because it was $2.392 million in 2001-02, the last sports budget that was delivered when I was minister. I do not think the sports budget has benefited from any consumer price index increases.
That grants program allocates funding for about 240 programs and provides essential money for many of the major sporting groups. Most sporting groups are not terribly wealthy. Apart from big corporations like the Raiders and the Brumbies most of them run on the smell of an oil rag. There is much consternation in the sporting community about the $300,000 to be cut from the sports budget of $2.4 million. It will reduce the
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