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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-14 Daily Xml
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Sports Vouchers

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:03): Supplementary: minister, when will you extend the sports voucher scheme to cover Scouts and Girl Guides in South Australia?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:03): I thank the member for the question. As I did outline, we have expanded the vouchers and we are always looking at opportunities to expand that further. But we did notice when we came to government that the previous government hadn't actually invested any money in the program going forward, so there was no money from those opposite into our Sports Vouchers program.

We went to the Treasurer and said, 'We need to keep this going because this is a good program.' Labor don't want to continue it; we do on our side of the house. We want to continue it. They had no money for the program.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: No thought to keep rolling it out. We said that we need to keep this going and the Treasurer was obliging. In fact, we said, 'You know what? We need to up the voucher program as well to $100. We need to make sure we are putting money back into the pockets of the people of South Australia.' Along the way, we looked to expand it even further and we added dance and we added swimming to that program as well. Then we thought we should look to advance it even further because it is such a good program, and we moved it into years 8 and 9 and we will continue to look at how we do it. One of the key focuses we have with this program wrapped around the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Reynell!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —is we want to get more people active. They may not want to do it on that side of the chamber, but that's our focus and why we invested in it on this side. Again, I reiterate: we took it from 50, but the Labor government weren't going to even fund or support it. They had no money in the budget for it. We put the 50 back in and we have made it 100. We actually increased the program.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: They don't like to hear it, but it's a fact.

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Then we expanded it, and we expanded it to swimming and we also expanded it to dance.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Families were very appreciative of that—

Members interjecting:

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

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and we are very happy about that as well, and now we have expanded it to year 8s and year 9s because we know it helps out families. We will continue to look at ways and means that we can expand it further, but we need to keep making sure that we are delivering for people right across South Australia. That's overlaid not only in helping families with the cost of living when it comes to sport but also making sure we are delivering the infrastructure that sporting organisations need.

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order. Please be seated, minister, there is a point of order.

Mr DULUK: Standing order 98: as good as the information is from the minister, the question was: when will this government extend the vouchers system to Scouts and Girl Guides? It's not about the values of the Labor Party; it's about wanting to know what this government is doing.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I will reiterate what we are doing.

The SPEAKER: Minister, just a moment thank you. Standing order 98 provides for rules applying to answers. Those rules, minister, are clear:

(a) In answering a question, a Minister or other Member replies to the substance of the question and may not debate the matter to which the question refers.

I am going to uphold the point of order. Minister, I bring you to the question or the supplementary question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: As I outlined to the member, we will continue to look at it as we have with swimming; we advanced it there, as we did with dancing. That's not debate, sir: it's fact. We expanded it in swimming, we expanded it in dance and we expanded it to year 8s and 9s. That is what we have done. We will continue to look at ways we can expand that, but we will also look at a more broader perspective of sport, where we have invested in the infrastructure as well.

We need to take all those factors into consideration, but our government proudly has put more than $400 million into sport in South Australia, grassroots sport, to get more people more active through our Game On program. We are very proud of that. We have delivered for communities right across the state. We will continue to do that and look for further opportunities as they arise.

The SPEAKER: There was concern that the remainder of that question might not address the substance, but the answer has concluded.

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