Page 2801 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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also be used to fence schools, to stop the vandalism of those places and that sporting equipment. The facilities and skills these funds will help generate will move us towards meeting our obligations under action items 7.5 and 7.6 of the strategic plan.
In her motion Ms Porter also calls on the government to continue to ensure improved integration and coordination of non-government sport and recreation facilities with those provided by the ACT government. The ACT budget again contains a $2.2 million fund to assist sport and recreation organisations of all types to continue to provide services to the ACT community.
The annual grants round in this budget could certainly provide funding to allow organisations to upgrade their facilities through the capital upgrade program, and again if the budget secures the support of the Assembly it will provide funding that could help local sport and recreation groups to train their volunteers on how to be referees and administrators.
The budget will fund training for local sporting groups on how to prevent child abuse in sport and how to deal with the scourge of ugly parents hurling abuse on the sidelines of kids’ sporting matches. So I can again assure the Assembly that the government is committed to deliver on this element of the active 2020 strategy.
We are of course also determined to deliver on our election commitments in relation to sporting infrastructure—a new pool in Gungahlin; the Tuggeranong multi-use indoor community facility and men’s shed—for which the budget provides a $2.1 million injection. We are committed to the redevelopment of the Kippax district playing fields, and the government will provide a $2 million injection towards that outcome. We are committed to the restoration of sporting fields across the territory, starting with Charnwood and Isabella Plains in this budget—a $1.1 million commitment—and to bringing major sporting matches to Manuka Oval, so there will be an increase in first-class cricket through our arrangement with Cricket New South Wales.
And of course there is our partnership with the Giants. These fixtures will be an important boost to local tourism and within the budget there is $500,000 provided. We are committed to planning for sport and future sporting infrastructure provision, and I note a particular initiative contained in this year’s budget is a feasibility study for future aquatic facilities in the Molonglo valley.
We are also determined to help Canberra’s elite athletes achieve their potential by providing a $50,000 funding boost to the ACT Olympic Council’s campaign for the 2012 Olympic Games.
We on this side of the Assembly, led by the Chief Minister, have taken actions to support all of these initiatives in sport. We have done so by putting together a responsible and well-targeted range of funding initiatives for sport and recreation in this year’s budget and we will take further action in support of this by actually voting for these initiatives later this week.
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