Royalty Theatre

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:21): Supplementary again to the Premier in his role as Minister for the Arts: is it fair to portray the Royalty Theatre as a private theatre when any income at the Royalty is used to support the women's sport of calisthenics? Couldn't you kill two birds with one stone by working with the Minister for Recreation and Sport, who, when he responded to my letter, advised me of two grants, one of which they would not actually be eligible for? There is no way for them to lift the theatre out of the problems they have unless they have some support to upgrade the facility so they can augment their income through arts.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:22): I thank the member for the question and appreciate her interest in calisthenics. I note that $214 million was put into the budget the last time around and a number of those grant applications are eligible for all sports to apply to. They are fifty-fifty funding operations, so they will have to put some of their own money in.

Across the board, since coming into government, I think we have put in excess of $350 million into sport. Those programs are very much open to all sports, including calisthenics. The other great thing we did, of course, was increase the sports voucher from $50 to $100, which I think has been really well received. We have included dance, and calisthenics fits into that scope as well. We are very keen to keep talking with the member about opportunities there and encourage them to apply through those grant processes.