Motions

Sports Vouchers

Adjourned debate on motion of Mrs Pearce (resumed on motion).

Mrs PEARCE (King) (11:12): As I was saying, it is just as important to ensure that we are providing healthy avenues for young people to embrace instead of social media screens and the like wherever we can, which is why it is such a pleasure to be doing work in this space.

I was not an extraordinary sportsperson at all in my younger years, but I did absolutely love being involved in sports and local clubs, and now when I look back I actually recognise that not only was I active in playing sports but a lot of my social life revolved around sports and the like. I certainly was not a basketball player but I spent a lot of my Friday nights over at the basketball courts when growing up, and in winter it was over at the hockey as well.

It was important, looking back, that I had this because it gave me social circles and communities to get ingrained in and it provided me something to do, somewhere to be and people to support me as well. It really instilled that community sense of pride that is so important to reflect on because it is something you take with you long into your adult years. It is why this role is so important.

We know the benefits that can be provided and the skills that can be taught to a young person through embracing sport, recreational activities and music endeavours and the like. We know it teaches you how to win, how to lose, how to communicate, how to work as a team, how to problem solve, how to develop resilience and, importantly, to have a sense of connection to a community and a community pride, which makes local areas within our state such special places to live in. With that, I commend the motion to the house.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (11:14): I, too, rise to support this motion. It is a great motion. It is an important motion that has been exercised since 2015. I remember quite fondly when I was the shadow sports minister the talk was about how we better promote our young people onto the sports field and out to be more active. Back in 2015 there was much more reckoning, with people realising just how much time their children and young ones were spending away from activities and sport and preferring screen time. What we have seen over a number of years is this really has been a good way to spend taxpayers' money.

When this voucher program was initiated back in 2015, it was a $50 program per child to help promote activity and more engagement with sport. Along the course of time we have amended it, and I think we have made it better. We have made it more inclusive. Those of us in this chamber who have been policymakers have seen fit to not only broaden the horizon of what sports and activities are eligible but also increase the amount of support for those young ones to be active, participate and be part of a local sports club.

If you look at relevance from 2015 at $50 per school voucher and you look at the cost of playing sport—the cost of membership and tuition, which is what the vouchers are there for—it is about on par. Even though we have seen an increase in that voucher program, the cost of living has increased, the cost of providing tuition has increased, the cost of membership has increased and the cost of being a participant in a sporting program has increased significantly, just like everything else has. I think what I have seen and what I promoted back in 2015—and, sir, if I remember rightly, you were the sports minister at that point in time.

The SPEAKER: Correct; and we worked in a very positive, bipartisan way and I want to thank you for all the cooperation you gave as the opposition sports spokesperson.

Mr WHETSTONE: Thank you. My memory runs long with some of the great work that you did as a sports minister. But I think more importantly, what we have seen is the adaptation of the program. We are seeing more people aware that there is this program in place to help them, to promote, to be there to make young people more active and to have their brains more sports orientated.

I always said that sport was better for brain development, it was better for health outcomes and it was really good for social networking, not only for the children, the five-to-13 year olds, but also for the parents to get out and about too. They have to take their young ones out to sports training and out to participate in sport on the day, and it has made parents more active in pursuing their children's pursuits.

What I have seen in a bigger long-term picture is that community engagement has been much better, and it is helping advance the sporting clubs. More participation and more membership gives an opportunity for clubs to spread their wings and have bigger programs, better equipment and better arenas or better sports grounds for the sake of being better at sport.

I would like to think that this program will in some way, shape or form promote activities. It will give better scope for our young ones to aspire to be better at sport. It will inspire them to live their dreams. Many of these young ones aspire to one day play AFL football or aspire to compete at the Olympic Games or the Commonwealth Games. It is about aspiration, and I think what this voucher program has shown us is that this is probably one of the great ways that we are spending taxpayers' money.

I understand the health system, the education system and other frontline services need to be supported by the taxpayer, but this is just a great initiative that I have witnessed since coming to this place. We as legislators and policymakers get ridiculed for wasting taxpayers' money. We get ridiculed for not spending it appropriately or to the public's expectation. What I am seeing is that the voucher program is being expanded. It has more participants.

Over the course of time, the number of vouchers continues to increase, somewhere around 10 per cent. Even though we are widening the scope for people who are eligible to be able to get the two $100 vouchers, what I am seeing is it is giving competitive sport a larger cohort of membership. It is giving sport a much larger scope of participation, particularly for these early adopters. It allows young children who are well balanced and have good sporting prowess to spread their wings and potentially try another sport with the assistance of the voucher program.

I will not go into the current number of vouchers that have been used or applied for, but what I can say is that the proof is in the pudding; that is, the program continues to grow and continues to be out there. One of the stats that I did read—and I was a little disappointed—is that children in metro sporting groups are by far much better at accessing the voucher program. I would urge all regional MPs here to better promote the voucher program. Get out into your community and put it out there that this voucher program is available to every five-to-13 year old, whether they are aspirational participants, whether the parents are looking to get them off the couch or whether they are looking to get out there and better participate in community sporting programs.

As the Speaker has said, this was a bipartisan approach. It was seen as doing good for community, doing good for young South Australians—the aspirational and potential sporting stars who will be part of our sporting future. The proof will be in the pudding. Those voucher programs have been in train now for 10  years, and we will be starting to see the fruits of this program's success and the coming of age of participants. They are now young adults who will be looking to really flex their muscle in their chosen sports. Let's hope that we will see some of these young recipients of sports vouchers do our state and our country proud and do well in their sport.

What I must say is that the numbers of vouchers in my electorate of Chaffey have been pretty well received. About 2,200 vouchers have been distributed, to the tune of about $220,000. That money goes into community clubs and community service and helps to make those community clubs better. It helps to attract volunteers. It helps parents to become more engaged. As I have said, the voucher program has tentacles that are far-reaching. They are there to make community sport, school sport, all sporting activities, better and more attractive and more affordable, because for many people it is costly to take their children into a sporting environment. It is not just about membership; it is about the attire you have to use and the time that sometimes parents have to give up. The Sports Vouchers program really is well worth celebrating, so I congratulate the mover of this motion. It is a good motion, it is a good program, and long live sports vouchers here in SA.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (11:24): It is a bit of a different view from here. It is good to see the Hansard people after almost a year. I have been looking out while you have sat there above me. It's very nice to see all of your smiling faces!

I rise to support this motion and place on the record my thanks to many people along the way. When I was a member of the Labor Party and Minister for Sport we took this to the 2014 election. I have to say it was one of the most popular things that I ever did being out on the hustings talking about, to people from all walks of life. When you are running a family budget we know how tight things can be and if people are making choices between food, fuel and sport for their kids, quite often sport for the kids was one of the first things that got cut in a family budget, so it was a great initiative, one that was backed in by Premier Jay Weatherill at the time and the Treasurer, as we took that to the 2014 election.

I also want to thank Paul Anderson, who ran the Office for Rec and Sport in those days, and Kylie Taylor who is now heading it, but she was there playing an important role. I really want to thank someone who has always been a great mentor to me, Marg Ralston, who was my sports adviser at the time. She looked at what was happening in other states where they had introduced vouchers so that we could come up with the fairest and most equitable system that did not lose a lot of money.

We wanted the best way to get money into people's pockets and in the most direct way possible, so we had to come up with a system that could not be rorted but also that did not waste a lot of money in administration. To Marg, for the great work that you did in my office and before that as the head of the South Australian Olympic Committee, I want to place on the record once again my immense gratitude for your work.

These vouchers not only have an impact in the sporting sphere but it reaches over into the justice system, it reaches over into health, particularly the mental and physical health of young kids, and sets them up for, hopefully, a lifetime of healthy habits, whether that is physical fitness or whether it is eating the right things. Sport teaches people of all ages how to be better communicators, how to work in a team environment, how to make decisions, how to win well and, more importantly, how to lose well. Our education system is a terrific place for young people to learn, but the sporting fields and courts are also really important.

The member for Chaffey mentioned in his speech the bipartisan approach that we have taken to sports vouchers, and I have to say that the Liberal Party was very much onside from day one when the member for Chaffey was the opposition sport spokesperson. But I also want to put on the record my thanks to Corey Wingard for the work he did as sports minister, increasing the scope and the payments for the sports vouchers. That was backed up by Labor when Labor came back into power as well. So I commend this motion to the house. I thank the member for King for bringing this in, and I want to recognise the great work she is doing in her assistant minister role, working to increase the participation of young people in sport.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:28): I, too, rise to make a brief contribution to the motion, and thank the member for King for bringing this motion to the house. It is very timely because yesterday I filled out the sports voucher form for my daughter, Audrey, to undertake club soccer. It was great just to be able to fill it out, tick the box, $200 off her soccer fees for the year, which is such a big help for any family.

I had the pleasure in the first week of the school year to visit a couple of my local schools and just stand at the front of the school gate at drop-off and pick-up times to talk to parents about the importance of this voucher system. I think they were blown away by the fact that they have access to up to $200 off their children's extracurricular activities, whether that is sport, whether it is dance, whether it is Scouts or Girl Guides, and, importantly, we have expanded that program to now include music lessons as well.

I was a sporty kid, growing up in a country town. I do not think you have much choice—it is a bit of a religion, but I also loved my music education but that was always a bit of a juggle for many families, particularly for my mum, being a single mum, to be able to afford the various netball, basketball and tennis fees and, on top of that, my piano lessons as well.

I know how much of a help this will be to so many families, not just in my community but across South Australia, and a unique part of the Sports Vouchers Plus program, as we are now calling it, is that parents can choose to split that $200 across a couple of activities. If they choose they could spend $100 on their child's sport or swimming lessons or dance and also leave $100 perhaps for the child to learn a musical instrument.

Let's be honest about what is really at the heart of this program, and that is getting kids off screens. It is about getting them active, out in their community, keeping fit, both physically and mentally, making friends and really just having a good time that perhaps does not involve a video game or a TV show or—heaven forbid—YouTube. I know as a parent how challenging that can be. I very much commend this motion and congratulate everybody who has been involved in the Sports Vouchers program from its inception and I really encourage parents to get on to the Sports Vouchers website, fill out that voucher and get $200 for your family.

Ms PRATT (Frome) (11:31): I am confident that for all the contributions today we will only hear the positives about this sports program. The Sports Vouchers program, of course, was expanded and doubled from $50 to $100 under the Marshall Liberal government, but here we are in a collegial way recognising how important these vouchers are for all young people to be encouraged and assisted to engage in sporting activities. That is never more top of mind or obvious than in regional communities, so I welcome the contributions my regional colleagues are making today to demonstrate the take-up and the popularity of the Sports Vouchers program.

In the electorate of Frome the Sports Vouchers program is exceedingly popular and it is only growing in the right direction. To date, from January to today, the voucher take-up in Frome is already 460, which is wonderful. That is to a value of $46,915. It is clear that there are lots of providers who understand the importance of promoting this to young people and parents, who, as we have heard, find it a fairly user-friendly process to fill out that paperwork.

I want to speak very specifically about what is happening in Frome and what that participation rate looks like. At the top of the leaderboard is the Clare Valley School of Dance, ably lead by Kate Mensforth. It is a perfect opportunity to celebrate a business and leisure pursuit, a hobby and an activity that so many young children in the Clare Valley districts participate in. I want to acknowledge Kate's hard work in relocating a much-loved school of dance from its old location in the main street over to the valleys now. It is a spectacular second-storey dance hall where the kids are surrounded by an entire community focused on their athletic pursuits.

We have swimming pools, the basketball stadium, squash courts, the gymnasium, the football, netball and tennis courts all together in one precinct. The work of Kate Mensforth in modernising and having a vision to relocate a cohort of students really has set the standard for this school of dance. Ninety-two vouchers have been accessed for young people to be involved in dance. There are many more all around the district, including the Owen Private Swim School, the UMA martial arts at Balaklava, the Eudunda Tennis Club, the Kapunda Tennis Club, the Adelaide Plains Equestrian Club and the Kapunda Bombers Basketball Club.

The Hon. N.D. Champion interjecting:

Ms PRATT: 'Go the Bombers' says the member for Taylor and I highly agree with him.

The Hon. N.D. Champion: Former under 17, even.

Ms PRATT: I am not going to allow more contributions from the member for Taylor into my Kapunda anecdotes. He can make his own, but 'Go the Bombers,' he said.

I want to explain to the house how important these vouchers are by analysing some of the data that is available on the take-up of the scheme. For those of us who have accessed the website, we can extrapolate who lives where and who is accessing the data. While I will give the top five, I am going to conclude with a different message, and that is the smaller pool of users. A total of 56 vouchers have been accessed by families who live in Clare, 54 vouchers in the Two Wells district, 43 vouchers in Freeling, 42 in Lewiston and 39 in Kapunda. That is to date.

The message that I want to leave the house understanding is how important this voucher scheme is and how important being involved in outdoor activities is for young people, whether they live in the country or not. The voucher scheme allows a family to access a $100 voucher to improve equity of access to some of these activities. It is the tiny communities in Frome that are activated or supported by these vouchers.

I give a shout-out to the small towns and the small families that live within Waterloo, Templers, Manoora, Grace Plains, Fords, Buchanan, Wild Horse Plains, Thompson Beach, beautiful Salter Springs, Rhynie, Redbanks, Leighton, Julia, Hamilton, Korunye and Terowie. These remarkable townships stretch from Two Wells to Terowie. Once you cross the Gawler River you are in prime regional real estate, but some of these towns that I am referencing are very small. They do not have a tourism economy that attracts lots of people. They may not have a shop in the town, but families live there, families farm there and these vouchers have enabled perhaps one child in one town to have access to sport. I support the motion.

Mr DIGHTON (Black) (11:37): I rise to support the motion as well. I commend the Malinauskas government for doubling the voucher system, and I commend the member for King for her work in promoting this excellent service. I note her recent visit to Port Pirie to do just that. It is also, Mr Speaker, good to hear about and acknowledge your work in initiating this many—

The SPEAKER: I am very old.

Mr DIGHTON: —years ago. I have seen firsthand the impact that participation in sport can have on other areas of life. As a teacher and leader for 16 years at Sacred Heart College, I saw what happened when students and young people participated in sport on the field, and engaged with each other on the field and on the court, and the positive impact that had when they came into the classroom and interacted there. It really created a sense of team building. In many cases, that physical activity supported self-regulation. I can tell you that after lunch in a school it is very important that students have had an opportunity to run around, because it helps with that very last lesson, which can be particularly challenging.

Participation in sport and other activities is really important for individual students, both physically and mentally and to create that sense of social wellbeing. Yesterday, I referenced a report in my maiden speech, a PISA report which talked about a link between belonging and academic achievement. That report demonstrated that Australian students have lower levels of belonging in comparison to many other nations, and therefore their academic results are lower as well. That is one factor we need to be aware of.

I would say that a sense of belonging is not just important for academic outcomes; it is really important for wellbeing in general. It goes well beyond just the classroom and the school because, in our society, creating a sense of belonging is actually really important. I am sure we would all agree in here that our sporting clubs and our other community organisations help to create a sense of belonging, so I want to reference the great sporting clubs and community clubs that are within my electorate, my community, for the work they do in supporting and promoting a sense of belonging and connection.

I am indulgently going to read out in the house a few of those names: the Cove Cobras Football Club, the Brighton and Seacliff Yacht Club, Christophers Taekwondo Academy, Cove BMX Club, Cove FC, Cove Cricket Club, Cove Tigers Netball Club, Dover Square Tennis Club, Hallett Cove Beach Tennis Club, Hallett Cove Little Athletics Centre, Hallett Cove Netball Club, National Karate Academies, Seacliff Calisthenics Club, Seacliff Community Recreation Association Incorporated, and Seacliff Gymnastics—which is where my son, Albie, participated in KinderGym and pre-gym and absolutely loved that experience, so this is a shout-out to them for their support of us over many years.

There is also Seacliff Hockey Club, Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club, Seacliff Tennis Club, Seacliff Uniting Netball Club, Sheidow Park Cricket Club, Southbank Tennis Club, Trott Park Fencing Club, Westminster Hockey Club and the Zanshin Freestyle Karate Holdfast Dojo, among many others.

It is great to hear that in my electorate last year there were 2,410 vouchers issued by 198 different providers, which represented over $240,000 worth of vouchers for the people in my community of Black. Again, I want to reiterate how fantastic it is that we have this initiative. It is great to hear that it has been a bipartisan initiative over successive governments and parliaments. I really want to encourage many in our community and our families to take up this voucher system to ensure that we have more and more participation in our community to benefit our society going forward. I commend this motion to the house.

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (11:42): I, too, rise to speak to this really important motion. It has been fantastic to hear from members across the aisle about how important this initiative is for local communities, and I, too, pay tribute to your work in this space, Mr Speaker, so thank you very much.

As has been mentioned, cost should never be a barrier for kids wanting to get active and for families wanting to get their children off the video games, off YouTube and out into our fantastic local clubs. When in government, as has already been mentioned, the Liberal Party did double the sports vouchers from $50 to $100. That was really successful, and it is great to see this being extended even further to provide additional hip-pocket relief to families who are obviously doing it pretty tough at the moment. We have to do everything we can to keep children active and engaged. Given the significant cost-of-living pressures that families are facing right across Australia, including in my own local electorate, this is certainly welcomed.

Looking at the local level, I thought, as have other members, that it would be really interesting to go onto the website that is available to see how many local families have taken up this opportunity to claim the vouchers. I have looked at this pretty regularly, and in fact just this morning I had a look at what happened in 2024. Last year, there were over 2,500 local families who took up this opportunity of the sports vouchers. What that means is that there is $255,000 going back into the hip pockets of local families, which I think is amazing.

This year we have already seen 862 vouchers being claimed. That is more money going back into the hip pockets of hardworking families, and it also means that more and more children are getting active in our local clubs, which gets a big tick from me. It is great to see that the vouchers have been claimed across such a wide variety of sports and local providers, from the Adelaide Dirt Kart Club to karate and taekwondo clubs, skating clubs, calisthenics, judo and, of course, basketball, netball, soccer and hockey clubs.

I am sure it will not surprise people in the house that AFL has been the top activity in Schubert where we had 782 kids using vouchers for their local footy club or for Auskick. Soccer and netball are not very far behind. It is great to see dance coming in at No. 4. This was an expansion that was made possible by the former Liberal government. I know that there are a lot of local families in my community who have children who might not want to play netball, hockey, basketball or football, so to broaden the eligibility criteria is fantastic. I note that it has been expanded to scouts and other things too, which has been really welcomed because it is ultimately about getting kids out of the lounge room, off their screens, off YouTube and into activity of some form, whatever that may be.

As I have reiterated, I will allow other colleagues to make contributions to this, but cost should never be a barrier to physical activity. Putting money back into the hip pockets of hardworking families is really important. It gets children off their TV screens and active and engaged in local clubs right across our community. I support the Sports Vouchers program and I encourage all local families to hop on the website, have a look at their eligibility and take those vouchers to ensure their kids can get active as well. I commend the motion.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (11:46): I rise to speak on the sports vouchers motion in South Australia. As a regional member, I encourage my community to be involved because, as we have heard, cost should not be a barrier for young people being involved in sport and activities, especially in regional South Australia where we know that cost of living and distance, and the costs associated with that, can be a deterrent, but the cost of involvement should not be. This is why this program of sports vouchers is one that is supported across political lines and one which both major parties understand plays a significant role in helping kids and families be involved in their local sporting communities and local communities as a whole.

Last year, in the electorate of Flinders there were nearly two and a half thousand vouchers utilised. This is a number that is very comparable across a lot of the different electorates. It is great to see the pick-up on these opportunities right across electorates in South Australia. In the electorate of Flinders, the sports of Aussie Rules and netball are the two most prominent. There are 23 different football teams and netball clubs in my electorate—23—which is why I cannot get to every best and fairest or even every Mail Medal.

Last year, there were 744 applications for Aussie Rules sports vouchers, which now includes girls' Aussie Rules, and the netball contribution of 633 vouchers—obviously the two most prominent sports—but it is encouraging to see that other sports have been active in encouraging their members and prospective members to apply for these sports vouchers. These include sports such as gymnastics, hip-hop dance, basketball, soccer, jazz and classical dance, hockey, swimming, cricket and athletics. The opportunities that these vouchers open up for families that may not necessarily be able to afford for their kids to participate in these sports does provide that extra encouragement and extra incentive, which is welcomed by all parties.

As I said, in the electorate of Flinders, right across the sporting landscape and activities in general, these vouchers have been applied for and this is why the opposition have been supportive of the work that has been done by the government to double the sports vouchers—likewise in the last term of the Liberal government, to double the number at the time as well—making this an effective program which can be utilised by families, by kids and by sporting groups right across the state of South Australia.

Can I just say to my community, if you are not utilising these sports vouchers for your kids, have a look at every opportunity that you have to be able to do it. There is now the opportunity to help with the cost of music lessons as well, another activity. Take up the chance to be able to help with some of the challenging costs that we are all facing at the moment with the cost-of-living crisis and be involved in your local community, because strong local regional communities are what really provide a foundation for the long-term sustainability of regional South Australia in particular.

Mrs PEARCE (King) (11:50): I will be brief, but I just want to thank everybody for their very kind words to this motion. It is really heartwarming to see that across the house there is support for getting our kids off screens, healthy and active in their local communities and a recognition of how important Sports Vouchers Plus has been in helping to support that.

Mr Speaker, it was remiss of me, but thank you very much for the important work that you did to help develop this program and initiate this so families for the last 10 years have been able to be provided with support in terms of cost of living and accessing sport in their local communities. I acknowledge the growth of this program over the years as well, recognising that across the board, we are looking at ways to support families and what works for them to make sure that this stays relevant in local households as well.

I also quickly would like to touch on what the member for Black mentioned in terms of self-regulation because it is a really important reminder that there are so many benefits that can be recognised through participating in sport. Self-regulation through activities and through sport then helps lead to better outcomes in other areas of a person's life, in the case provided in terms of their education. To the member for Chaffey, I would like to reiterate the points made about local MPs needing to get out there and promote this program as much as they possibly can. It is a really important tool, and we will see more uptake of this program if there is more understanding about what is available and how to do that.

So I encourage all, where they can, to promote it within this place but outside of this place as well. If you are a sporting club that has not yet signed up to the program, please go onto the Sports Vouchers website. It is a really great place to have a look at what is available. It is really easy to sign up, and you could be helping so many families in your local community as a result as well as receiving your own benefits in doing so. With that, I thank everybody for their comments to the motion.

Motion carried.