Mr HATTON - 1996-10-10
Mr HATTON (Sport and Recreation): Mr Speaker, the member for Arafura also asked me a question yesterday which I said I would take on notice. Having had the opportunity to read the question, I can understand the difficulty I had in interpreting it. In the space of 6 lines of the uncorrected Hansard, we went from Australia winning the first 2 gold medals in shooting through to the Coalition government cutting grants to Recfish, and then to the Northern Territory cutting funding of the annual grant to the Sporting Shooters Association which would, he said, seriously limit the ability of Territory shooters to compete interstate and within the Territory. Finally, he came to the question: `Why are this government and its federal mates so intent on cutting sport and recreational programs that have underpinned the Territory lifestyle for so many years?'
I cannot believe that any rational person would be suggesting that our government, of all governments in this country, would be in any way undermining the development of sport and recreation programs in the Northern Territory. Our government has an extraordinarily proud record. We provide in the order of $78 per head of population for sports and recreation programs. That is 3 or 4 times the per capita funding of the next highest funding state.
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I will deal with the federal situation before I deal with the question of the Sporting Shooters Association, although the member for Arafura did not actually ask me a specific question about the Sporting Shooters Association. He was talking more generally. It is true that the federal government is cutting some programs in its budget and it is true that Recfish has been one of those. As I said yesterday, I have written to the federal minister, asking him to review that situation in support of the submissions from AFANT.
I might say, however, that the Labor Party protests a bit too much considering that, for 13 years, we had a federal Labor government which economically raped this nation and financially raped the state and territory budgets, to the extent that our own national debt went from $26 000m to over $180 000m. Every analysis of funding to the states shows that the federal Labor government was cutting funding to states and tying up what funding it gave to grossly limit the ability of state and territory governments to deliver programs, while it went on a massive own-purpose spending binge. Finally, Australians said that enough was enough and voted a new government in to try and sort out the mess and deal with a $7000m underlying deficit in the federal government's budget, which has resulted in reductions in funding across the board.
It is worth noting that there is always pressure on our department's sponsorship program. For 1996-97, the department received more than 1000 sponsorship bids, totalling more than $21m, from 156 individual organisations. The 1996-97 sponsorship allocation represents an expenditure of approximately $30 per head of population in the Northern Territory for sports programs. This reflects the government's commitment to providing all Territorians with the opportunity to participate in sport and recreation activities. In order to satisfy the increased demand, the department had to reassess its priorities to ensure an equitable, across-the-board spread of sponsorship benefits within tight budgetary parameters. The bottom line is that the sponsorships for some organisations were maintained at the 1996-97 level and some had to be reduced marginally to make room for others. Some reductions were made in the travel sponsored for individuals ...
Mr COULTER: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is time available after 11 am in which all ministers are allowed to give responses, of about 2 minutes duration each, to provide additional information. The honourable minister has spoken now for 10 minutes of the time that is allocated for all ministers to respond.
Mr HATTON: Mr Speaker, in fact, the first 3 or 4 minutes were taken up by the Chief Minister's personal explanation.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to please wind up. Is there anything further you wish to say?
Mr HATTON: I had intended merely to outline the details of the sponsorship for the sporting shooters. I do not mind winding up, if members are not interested in the information.
Mr SPEAKER: Do you have much more to say?
Mr HATTON: No, I do not.
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The Sporting Shooters Association received support for the Northern Territory champion and an official to attend the national field rifle and scoped 3D championships in Perth, the national lever-action championships in Victoria and the national muzzle-loading championships, also in Victoria, as well as the Northern Territory championships in these disciplines. One section of the Sporting Shooters Association did not receive sponsorship because it had not previously received sponsorship and had not yet demonstrated viability. All grants were made strictly in accordance with the guidelines established.
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I cannot believe that any rational person would be suggesting that our government, of all governments in this country, would be in any way undermining the development of sport and recreation programs in the Northern Territory. Our government has an extraordinarily proud record. We provide in the order of $78 per head of population for sports and recreation programs. That is 3 or 4 times the per capita funding of the next highest funding state.
Page 1672
I will deal with the federal situation before I deal with the question of the Sporting Shooters Association, although the member for Arafura did not actually ask me a specific question about the Sporting Shooters Association. He was talking more generally. It is true that the federal government is cutting some programs in its budget and it is true that Recfish has been one of those. As I said yesterday, I have written to the federal minister, asking him to review that situation in support of the submissions from AFANT.
I might say, however, that the Labor Party protests a bit too much considering that, for 13 years, we had a federal Labor government which economically raped this nation and financially raped the state and territory budgets, to the extent that our own national debt went from $26 000m to over $180 000m. Every analysis of funding to the states shows that the federal Labor government was cutting funding to states and tying up what funding it gave to grossly limit the ability of state and territory governments to deliver programs, while it went on a massive own-purpose spending binge. Finally, Australians said that enough was enough and voted a new government in to try and sort out the mess and deal with a $7000m underlying deficit in the federal government's budget, which has resulted in reductions in funding across the board.
It is worth noting that there is always pressure on our department's sponsorship program. For 1996-97, the department received more than 1000 sponsorship bids, totalling more than $21m, from 156 individual organisations. The 1996-97 sponsorship allocation represents an expenditure of approximately $30 per head of population in the Northern Territory for sports programs. This reflects the government's commitment to providing all Territorians with the opportunity to participate in sport and recreation activities. In order to satisfy the increased demand, the department had to reassess its priorities to ensure an equitable, across-the-board spread of sponsorship benefits within tight budgetary parameters. The bottom line is that the sponsorships for some organisations were maintained at the 1996-97 level and some had to be reduced marginally to make room for others. Some reductions were made in the travel sponsored for individuals ...
Mr COULTER: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is time available after 11 am in which all ministers are allowed to give responses, of about 2 minutes duration each, to provide additional information. The honourable minister has spoken now for 10 minutes of the time that is allocated for all ministers to respond.
Mr HATTON: Mr Speaker, in fact, the first 3 or 4 minutes were taken up by the Chief Minister's personal explanation.
Mr SPEAKER: I ask the minister to please wind up. Is there anything further you wish to say?
Mr HATTON: I had intended merely to outline the details of the sponsorship for the sporting shooters. I do not mind winding up, if members are not interested in the information.
Mr SPEAKER: Do you have much more to say?
Mr HATTON: No, I do not.
Page 1673
The Sporting Shooters Association received support for the Northern Territory champion and an official to attend the national field rifle and scoped 3D championships in Perth, the national lever-action championships in Victoria and the national muzzle-loading championships, also in Victoria, as well as the Northern Territory championships in these disciplines. One section of the Sporting Shooters Association did not receive sponsorship because it had not previously received sponsorship and had not yet demonstrated viability. All grants were made strictly in accordance with the guidelines established.
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Last updated: 09 Aug 2016