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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-17 Daily Xml
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Adelaide Lightning Women's Basketball Team

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:39): Supplementary, if I may, on this: given that the $150,000 is a one-off payment, and I take it from that that it is assured, really after that unless the private sector come in and provide ongoing funding there's no commitment from the government, at this point, to give them any continued funding?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:40): Absolutely. The club and the basketball association of South Australia have never asked the government to step in and support Adelaide Lightning with funding. What we do is we support basketball and all sports at the grassroots level. We think there is a duty there from corporate South Australia to get behind our elite teams. It's a terrific opportunity to get names—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is called to order.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: It's a terrific opportunity to get corporate names on singlets and tracksuits and on television coverage for these companies. We really need to see that corporate South Australia actually does get behind and sponsors our elite sporting teams. But I reiterate that at no stage did the club or the basketball association ask the government to try to bail out Adelaide Lightning. They actually wanted us to help them in the search for a corporate sponsor and we think that's a good idea. I am sure there is someone out there who would love to get behind Adelaide Lightning, just as we saw overnight a new ownership group has taken over the Adelaide 36ers.

Basketball is a great sport, it's a great sport at the grassroots level and it's a terrific sport at the elite level. We have the Opals and the Boomers, who do so well for us at the world championships and at the Olympic Games, and Adelaide Lightning and the Adelaide 36ers have had proud histories. We have seen the 36ers have a great couple of seasons. They've got new owners announced yesterday and I think their future is assured and is very bright. We would love to see the same thing for the Lightning.

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