Page 2789 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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on that day. This strategy is a dynamic partnership between the sport and recreation industry and the ACT Labor government. It provides a long-term strategic plan for sport and active recreation in the ACT. It is a partnership aimed at providing opportunities to expand participation in sport at the grassroots level, providing opportunities for schools and sporting clubs to enter into agreements on sharing of resources, ensuring sport and recreation organisations in the ACT have access to sustainable and quality infrastructure and promoting the benefits of sport and active recreation amongst Canberrans. These are matters that I have consulted widely on with community sporting and recreation groups, principals and sports staff at public and private schools.
This is an important partnership because sport and recreation, as we know, is a vital part of the ACT community. It contributes to community health and wellbeing, social cohesion and the ACT economy. In fact, the sport and recreation sector is of immense economic importance. Indeed, the recent economic contribution study by Access Economics found sport and recreation contributes about $245 million to our economy in the ACT—I know this is an astounding figure but I think we should dwell on that, $245 million to our economy—employs about 2,800 people and engages 27,000 volunteers.
The ACT government is committed to the development and growth of this vibrant, diverse and dynamic sports sector. This Labor government wants to see a sector that is a national leader in sporting achievement and in sport science. It is fitting that as the nation’s capital and as a city-state we should seize the opportunity of our community and geography. One critical element in this strategy is the acknowledgement that we must continue to build the sporting industry in the ACT. We need to work together towards a collective vision and help the ACT sporting community meet social and environmental challenges in order to benefit all Canberrans. We are already on the way to doing this.
Besides the economic benefits, the industry delivers positive social impacts. We have a strong network of facilities and a strong history of elite sporting successes and a large number of very active grassroots community sporting and recreation clubs. We can proudly claim we have the most active and healthy community in Australia. Despite this, there remains scope for improvement in achieving greater participation. The active 2020 strategy provides an unprecedented opportunity to do this by building even stronger partnerships to allow us to successfully meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Sport and recreation, as we know, is a diverse sector containing community groups, professional entities, commercial providers and government. The sector does not exist in isolation, though. It exists with and impacts upon many other sectors in the community, including health, education, tourism and planning. For instance, the value of the sector to preventive health outcomes is estimated at more than $80 million a year.
The value of the sector in terms of education is considerable. Physical education has been significantly revitalised under this Labor government, most notably with the minister’s physical activity challenge. This ACT government wants ACT students to
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