Page 2914 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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Sport and physical recreation are a vital part of the ACT community. The ACT is Australia’s most physically active state or territory, with a sport and physical recreation rate of 87.4 per cent in 2009—the latest available statistics. When 41 ovals get closed due to watering issues and other cost pressures, it will and does impact on the participation rates of the country’s young people.
The minister told the Assembly last year, and indeed again today, that the government valued the contribution that sport makes to the social and economic life of the territory. Great lines, but in bricks and mortar and dollar and cent realities, what does it mean? Is it just another example of his spin doctor policy approach? The “where will we play?” outdoor sports facilities initiative is a case in point. It was announced with great fanfare as an $8 million initiative, but in 2010 it was deferred to 2011-13 and this year it barely rates a mention. We get two ovals brought back into play, but what of the others? Last year the opt-out line was:
I think there are some that, given that they have been out of circulation for so long, could have an alternative recreation usage.
That is Barr-speak for “when we closed them, I did not really expect to have to open them again”. How many playing fields are still in the out-of-circulation category?
We move forward to the estimates hearings this year. The first question asked of the minister was about the situation with the Valley Dragons Rugby League club and the pressures they are facing in relation to the costs of oval hire and the lack of facilities at the ovals they use in the Tuggeranong valley. And just on questions, the minister was in no great hurry to provide answers. We asked a series of questions on Friday, 27 May and only received the response on Banks oval, dated 22 June, on Monday, 26 June, exactly 30 days after asking the questions during the estimates hearings. I understood that the response time for estimates questions was five days. Minister, that is not a great advertisement for responsive government or for your efficiency as sports minister. But I guess it is still faster than your response to your own constituents.
The replies provide for interesting reading. Quite noticeably, there is a wide variation in the hourly rates for various ovals and for various sports. We are advised that hiring charges in the last decade have only increased in line with the WPI, the wage price index, and/or the consumer price index. Further questions were lodged as to the cost of watering and electricity for the various fields around Canberra. We were told that the water costs in 2008-09 were $4.6 million and in 2009-10 $4.5 million. This year to date, understandably, given the seasonal conditions, water costs have dropped to $1.8 million. Electricity charges moved from $185,000 in 2008-09 to $233,000 last year.
I accept that sportsgrounds have ever-increasing costs for maintenance. What I cannot understand, however, is that apparently individual records for ovals are not kept. The department advise in their answer that “ground by ground records of quarterly billing for electricity and water are not retained”. On what basis then, minister, does the department determine variation in fees?
Why is it that baseball and softball matches played on an unenclosed oval are charged $9.25 an hour, while Rugby League matches on the same type of oval are charged
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