Page 5288 - Week 12 - Thursday, 28 October 2010
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sport and recreation organisations in the territory, a full priority list of facilities that we would seek to maintain if we had to do so with significantly less water. Happily, we do not have that challenge now. It has rained and our dams are full. That said, though, the work that went into that particular strategy places us in a very good position to be able to assess the priority facilities that we have within the territory.
I have also convened a working group to outline a 10-year strategy for sport and recreation in the territory. That group has been meeting for some time. I look forward to having a further discussion with them. I think that is scheduled for early next month.
MS LE COUTEUR: A supplementary, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Le Couteur.
MS LE COUTEUR: Minister, what measures has the government put in place to ensure that clubs can still deliver their core sporting activities and facilities without being dominated by revenue-raising activities such as licensed bars and poker machines?
MR BARR: Ms Le Couteur may be aware of an annual sports grants program that operates within my portfolio. She may also be aware of a range of budget initiatives over the last four or five years that have gone to a number of areas of critical need for sport and recreation organisations. I think overall, though, it is important that our policy settings are such that we are working with sports to enable them to diversify their income streams, to become less reliant on membership fees and government assistance and to be able to stand on their own two feet. I think that is important for the development of the industry overall.
We recently commissioned some work from Access Economics on the value of the sport and recreation industry to the territory. It is in the order of $250 million a year. There are nearly 4,000 people employed directly in sport and recreation industries across the territory, so it is an important part of our local economy and our local community. The government, through its ongoing grants programs and its industry development programs, through sport and recreation services, seeks to work with individual sport and recreation organisations to ensure that not only are they financially viable but also they continue to grow their participation. The evidence is clearly in in each of the annual surveys that are conducted by the ABS that Canberra is the most active community in terms of sport and recreation participation in Australia.
MS HUNTER: Mr Speaker, a supplementary question.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Hunter.
MS HUNTER: Minister, when a sporting club has a change of ownership or management, does the government routinely check that the new lessees continue to honour lease purpose clauses?
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