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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-15 Daily Xml
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Sports Vouchers

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Will the minister inform the house how the government is reducing the cost of living for families and making it easier for primary school aged children to participate in sport and recreation?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:30): I thank the member for Narungga for his question and commend him for his maiden speech today. He is an absolutely outstanding member who is working hard for his community in his short space of time in here and he is very focused on important things in this place, and that is reducing the cost of living and getting better services for his community.

The question that he puts forward is a very good question. I am very proud to talk about this policy that we took to the election. I know that South Australians, in particular the people of Narungga and the community around the Yorke Peninsula, will be very happy, as they will right across South Australia, because this sports voucher program has been a very positive program. As I get out and speak to people in my community right across the board, what they say to me is—

Mr Bignell: Sit down.

The SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is warned a second and final time. Minister.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: As I was saying, before the member for Mawson jumped up and bounced around, what people say to me is how good this is and how much better it is going to be now that the voucher has been upped from $50 to $100 for primary school students, and that is again thanks to this side and the Marshall Liberal government. We are very conscious of how important and how tough families are doing it out there, and giving them that money towards helping their primary school aged students get into sport is absolutely wonderful.

What we have also done is expand the criteria to include dance—or 'dance' as we like to say. Something came across my desk in the lead-up to the election which was very concerning. A mother wrote to me and said, 'This is the situation. My daughter has just started playing football with Auskick, which is fantastic. The AFL have done a great job, and the SANFL, in getting young people active and young women active in football. But my son is doing dance, so my daughter can get it playing football but my son can't get it doing dance.' So we have decided to incorporate dance into this project as well—again, doing all we can to keep young people active.

The member for Narungga, too, makes a very good point that in the communities and in the regions we want to get people involved in sport at every opportunity. So, by bringing the costs down and providing better services, as we set out to do at the election and as we are delivering now in government, I think South Australians are very appreciative of that. I know he is receiving the same feedback.

If we can develop fine young people and get them active in sport, it is good for their mental health and wellbeing as well. We want to get that balance right between getting people active and getting them healthy, keeping them fit, and working with education as well to make sure people are progressing and that we produce fine young people like the member for Narungga. Wouldn't you like to have him at centre half-back or centre half-forward of your football team, wherever you are playing? Again, we know that young children playing organised sport learn wonderful skills. It brings the community together, it gets coaches involved, it gets young people out there being active and engaging with one another. That is a really important thing.

You hear so often when you are doorknocking in the local communities about kids who are getting trapped in technologies and iPads, etc. I know it is a battle, I have it in my house, when you want to get your kids out and playing sports. This is just another way because the impediment that families say to me is that the cost of living in South Australia is too high. Under the previous government, the cost of living was what was strangling people. They were having to choose between whether their kids played sports or whether they didn't.

With this voucher, we know that this will allow more people to get their kids active and get them playing sports. We want to grow these community clubs, we want to grow these sporting clubs, we want to get all people—boys, girls, everyone—more active in sports. This is just a great way that we can do it—right through the suburbs, right through the regions, right across South Australia. This is a wonderful policy, and I look forward to the new sports voucher program being implemented on 1 January 2019. It will be a huge success.

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