Mr TOYNE - 1999-08-19
Young sports people who attend schools outside Darwin are increasingly missing out on involvement in significant sporting events because of reductions in travel subsidies brought in by this government. Why have these reductions occurred, and does the minister realise the serious impact they are is having on our young sports people?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the member probably knows what has happened with our school sports subsidy program. It was, in fact, increased this year. However, there has been a change of approach. In the past we had a 3-tiered system of subsidies. If you were in the top tier it was certainly a lot better than being in the bottom tier, where you got not a lot more than moral support. What we’ve done within the department, after consultation, is open up the number of sports that are involved in the subsidy program. So the pool of money, although it has gone up, is catering for more sports than ever before.
We are looking at ways to extend the program - a program, I might say, that is already by far the best in the country. Most other school systems have no subsidy system whatsoever. We already provide in excess of $200 000 - far and away, per capita, better than anywhere else in the country - and we will work on making it even better.
We have not made a reduction in the funding. The funding has gone up. We’ve simply expanded it to cover more sports - effectively all the sports - and we will continue to work to ensure that we make those sporting subsidies available to the widest possible population.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the member probably knows what has happened with our school sports subsidy program. It was, in fact, increased this year. However, there has been a change of approach. In the past we had a 3-tiered system of subsidies. If you were in the top tier it was certainly a lot better than being in the bottom tier, where you got not a lot more than moral support. What we’ve done within the department, after consultation, is open up the number of sports that are involved in the subsidy program. So the pool of money, although it has gone up, is catering for more sports than ever before.
We are looking at ways to extend the program - a program, I might say, that is already by far the best in the country. Most other school systems have no subsidy system whatsoever. We already provide in excess of $200 000 - far and away, per capita, better than anywhere else in the country - and we will work on making it even better.
We have not made a reduction in the funding. The funding has gone up. We’ve simply expanded it to cover more sports - effectively all the sports - and we will continue to work to ensure that we make those sporting subsidies available to the widest possible population.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016