Page 604 - Week 02 - Thursday, 19 February 2015
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MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Fitzharris.
MS FITZHARRIS: Minister, can you outline what the benefits are of the Aquis sponsorship to the Brumbies and the broader ACT community?
MADAM SPEAKER: Are you the minister responsible for the sponsorship of the Brumbies?
MR BARR: Yes.
MADAM SPEAKER: You have—
MR BARR: I have responsibility for the Brumbies’ performance agreement, yes.
MADAM SPEAKER: responsibility for the Brumbies’ performance agreement. Do you have responsibility for the sponsorship?
MR BARR: We are their major sponsor, yes.
MADAM SPEAKER: Okay, I will allow it.
MR BARR: The ACT government is the largest contributor to the Brumbies, both in cash and in kind, obviously through use of Canberra stadium, through the performance agreement that we have and the various payroll tax concessions. But we do, of course, encourage the Brumbies, as we do our other national league teams, to seek corporate sponsorship, and they do so in the marketplace, competing with other sports, and indeed other forms of entertainment and activity, for the corporate dollar.
The benefits, clearly, for the Brumbies from this particular arrangement are the longevity of the sponsorship arrangement, going over, I understand, six years, which is the single longest sponsorship deal that they have been able to secure. I am pleased because it signals a long-term commitment from Aquis to investing in Canberra. It provides significant financial support to the Brumbies to allow them to achieve their elite sporting goals and also to undertake the significant amount of community work that they do as part of their performance agreement with the government.
There are also benefits for other sports in the fact that it is a new sponsor from outside the pool of usual suspects of team sponsors for Canberra sport. This frees up capacity within the sporting sponsorship market for other Canberra sporting teams to benefit. I think that, overall, it is a positive outcome for the city, and I certainly look forward to our other sporting teams being able to attract significant additional sponsorship, because that will help to grow sport in Canberra.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.
MR DOSZPOT: Have you received any correspondence or other feedback from Aquis or the Brumbies about Mr Rattenbury’s tweet?
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