Page 2192 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Mr Stanhope: Mr Barr, be fair. Mrs Burke’s experience is the Endoxos experience. That is how you run a company. That is how you run a business!
Mrs Burke: Tell us about your experiences, Jon.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Chief Minister and Mrs Burke!
MR BARR: It would have to be the hardest job. I have to commend Mr Mulcahy. Being shadow treasurer and being responsible for the financial decisions or otherwise of those around him must be the toughest job in opposition. From time to time I have a sense of sorrow for Mr Mulcahy. Every now and then I find myself thinking, gee—
Mr Stanhope: He has taken the tough decisions, though. He is cutting the public art scheme.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, come to order. Mr Barr, stick with the subject matter of the question or sit down.
MR BARR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The important thing is to ensure that, through our sports grants, we are targeting our funding towards areas that will have the greatest impacts. I note, of course, that the ACT has the highest level of participation in exercise and physical activity of any jurisdiction in the country. But, of course, we should always aim to do better.
That is why it is important that we are able to draw together the efforts of those in the education sector, that we work actively with our sport and recreation partners at a local level through sport and recreation clubs, but also that we involve our national league teams and national sporting organisations to bring their resources to the table as well because it is a community-wide response that is needed.
To suggest that a couple of hundred thousand dollars here or there in the sports grants program is the difference between an obesity rate of 25 per cent within our primary school students and no obesity at all is another ridiculous proposition. What we need to do is to ensure that our programs are targeted. That is why we had a second round of grants in the last financial year targeted at those people with lower levels of participation and particularly looking at youth at risk.
There is clear evidence out of the survey that the health department undertook that those targeted grants were well targeted, and we can look into the future at what other responses we can bring to bear. But I have had some particularly encouraging conversations with some of the major sporting teams, particularly the Brumbies, the Raiders and our partners with the AFL, who are interested in coming into schools to provide a level of assistance not only to provide sporting equipment but also to provide their skills and experience and to pass on that knowledge to our teachers. In the end that will be what will be most effective—effective role models at an elite level involving themselves in schools. (Time expired.)
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