Sports Vouchers

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:40): I asked my local community to have their say on the Marshall Liberal government's Sports Vouchers program, and feedback that I received directly from community members related to the cost pressures to families of children participating in sport, and it was an increasing concern for families.

Over the past few years, I have raised this important opportunity to expand the program to government so that we could get more children active and ease cost-of-living pressures on families. Parents were telling me that costs just keep increasing, especially as children get older and, secondly, clubs have told me that their participation was falling off in the middle years. My local community members are increasingly getting on board and actively having their say on what matters most to them, and it is absolutely paying off.

I am extremely excited to report back to you that, as a result of local community feedback, more South Australian parents and carers will benefit from the extremely popular Sports Vouchers program, with the Marshall Liberal government expanding the initiative to include students in years 8 and 9. Right now, the Sports Vouchers program gives mums, dads and carers a $100 discount on sports, dance or swimming lessons, memberships and registration fees, and helps remove the cost-of-living pressures for South Australian families.

I can report that 93 per cent of my local constituents who had a say on the Sports Vouchers program told me that they wanted to see the Sports Vouchers program expanded to the middle years. Owing to our strong community feedback, which I sent through to the Minister for Sport and Recreation, the voucher program is now being expanded up to year 9 as part of an additional $1.6 million per annum investment in the state budget 2021-22.

This new measure brings total funding for the Marshall Liberal government's Sports Vouchers program to almost $10 million per year. The Marshall Liberal government's investment of $29.7 million over four years since March 2018 to extend and expand the Sports Vouchers program has been extremely popular and successful locally.

I am proud that our government has helped out our local families by doubling the value of the voucher, from $50 to $100, and then expanding the program to include dance activities and swimming lessons, and now we are expanding the program again to the middle year students. On top of the 93 per cent of my constituents who wanted to see this expanded, 41 per cent of King constituents told me they would like to see the Sports Vouchers program expanded to include other sports. I am listening to this and I will continue to advocate.

Some people mentioned that they would also like to see the Sports Vouchers program expanded to cover Scouts and Girl Guides—not as many, though, but I am listening and I will continue to advocate, so if you feel this way please let me know. I am committed to bringing the voices of my constituents into this house, and so I will share a couple of the comments I have received from my local community on this latest announcement:

Paula, thank you so much. This will help so many families keep their cost of living down and their kids active.

Thank you for listening to the community and making this important change happen Paula and to others involved.

Another said:

This is a great step towards making it easier to keep kids involved in sport & their communities at a vital age as they are transitioning into teenagers & beyond.

Another constituent said:

It's so good to see the age has increased. I'm sure this will help so many families keep their teens involved in some sort of extra curriculum activities.

I thank the Minister for Recreation and Sport for listening and working with me and our local community to further expand the Sports Vouchers program. I thank the Treasurer for adding this $1.6 million into the 2021-22 budget. Anything we can do to encourage continued physical activity will not only have huge benefits to the health and wellbeing of our children and young people but also a positive flow-on effect to the broader health system.

Many thanks again to our local community for sharing their views with me on the Sports Vouchers program. Together we have made this happen and together we are delivering what matters. I encourage my local community to keep having their say on what matters most. Together we are stronger and I am here for the King community.