Page 4317 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 27 November 2013
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The ACT government provided $5 million in funding through the 2013-14 budget to accommodate community sport within the sports commons project. This commitment will see ACT sport as well as a number of community sport operators housed within the facility. The expected benefits of co-locating community sport with elite sport and the university are opportunities to link students with the sports industry, enhance student learning and industry resources, and building economies of scale through co-location of organisations.
These benefits could include internship placements, organisational and event-based research, current industry case studies integrated into student learning, and shared administrative endeavours. This is essentially a reinvigoration of the sports house incubator concept for smaller community sports that benefit from co-location with other sporting organisations and cooperative opportunities.
In addition, through the strategic opportunities funding program, the ACT government has also provided $150,000 for the establishment of an environmental chamber in the sports hub building. The air pressure in the five square metre environmental chamber can be adjusted to support recuperation or simulate high altitudes. This has leveraged a further $100,000 in investment from the Australian Institute of Sport towards the facility. It is a great example of the great opportunities in Bruce for cooperation between the nearby institutions there, such as the UC sports hub, the AIS or the new University of Canberra public hospital and Calvary hospital, amongst others.
I have spoken before of the dynamic east Belconnen hub in Bruce. It encompasses education, sports, health and hi-tech institutions that also include the CIT Bruce campus, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and Fern Hill technology park. As I mentioned this morning, I also look forward to the day, once the Gungahlin-Civic line is in operation, to the next capital metro line running through Bruce on the rapid transport route. Bruce is one of our most densely populated suburbs with one of the youngest demographics in Canberra and it is just ripe for light rail.
I am very pleased by the ACT government’s commitment to the sports commons project and also that this new sporting infrastructure is to be built in my electorate of Ginninderra. These funding commitments have been joined by commitments from the University of Canberra and the ACT Brumbies to bring stage 1 of the UC sports commons project to $15 million in funding and make it a reality.
Construction has now begun on stage 1 of the sports commons. If you have been past UC in the last couple of weeks, you would have also noticed that construction is well underway. In August the former federal government committed $10 million from the commonwealth’s regional development fund to the project. This funding formed stage 2 of the sports commons project and was to accommodate regional sports infrastructure and health programs within the UC sports commons.
This stage will include new mobile sports fitness and health clinics that will help the project to deliver benefits to the ACT as well as the region. These clinics would reach out to local communities and bring the benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle, particularly with young people. This funding would also go towards building new
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