Page 2792 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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stakeholder that may be identified along the way. I am also confident that community sporting and recreation groups have shown their willingness to engage positively with the government in relation to the strategies contained within the active 2020 strategy, including those in relation to sharing of resources. I commend this motion to the Assembly.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.30): I thank Ms Porter for bringing on this motion today. It gives me the opportunity to talk about sport and recreation in the ACT. The motion places a spotlight on the 10-year strategic plan for sport and recreation that was released earlier this year, the active 2020 plan. The Greens are pleased to see this issue brought on for debate, because creating a healthier and more active Canberra is in the interests of everybody.
The ACT Greens policy on sport states at principle No 1 that we believe “sport and physical recreation assist in the maintenance of mental and physical health”. So we wholeheartedly accept that sport and recreation are important to Canberra. I think Ms Porter has commented similarly in her opening remarks. Put simply, the more active our community is, the healthier and happier we are.
We also understand the great social function that sport and recreation clubs provide with the work of so many volunteers helping to run the carnivals, sausage sizzles, administer the enrolments days—all of these things which keep the clubs functioning and help build positive relationships between people of different ages, backgrounds and abilities, and also help to build a strong and resilient community.
All of us who get invited to many of the events around town can testify to the social glue that sport so often delivers. For example, many of us at the 15th anniversary of The Big Issue the other day heard people talking about street soccer there. We have had the recent refugee tournament and there are the regular weekend activities that go on weekend after weekend across the city.
I know for myself that some of the strongest and most enduring friendships have been nurtured through shared participation in sport. Being a reasonably active person, sport has been a big part of my life since I was a kid. I know what a difference it has made to my sense of self and the friendships that I have been able to develop, and I think it has played an important part in remaining healthy.
The active 2020 strategic plan has three overarching goals: to increase participation in all forms of sport and recreation at all levels, to encourage excellence in sporting performance and to ensure access to quality infrastructure. Out of those three goals stem seven strategic priorities and 52 specific initiatives. The strategic priorities are the maximising of community engagement, promoting the benefits, increasing organisational capacity, maximising individual success, improving team success, promoting a national sporting capital and maximising sporting infrastructure. That is quite a broad brush, I suppose, but that encapsulates the issues at the heart of sport and recreation policy for the ACT.
I will not go through the 52 specific initiatives. This is not an adjournment debate, after all, but they are extensive and set out many areas of government action that I
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