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| Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
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Legislative
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| Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council |
Parliament Index |
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SPORTS FUNDING
The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: The Australian Democrats have often drawn attention to the funding of elite sport and urged for a greater percentage of sports funding to be diverted to grassroots recreation and physical activity. My colleague the Hon. Mike Elliott has several times pointed out that it is contrary to South Australia's best interests to have multi-million dollars in sports funding dedicated merely to have more and more fatter, not fitter, fans just watching sport instead of participating in it.
We are adamant that there are substantial health benefits for the entire community to be obtained if sports and recreation funding goes more to encourage community participation in healthy activity, rather than encouraging mere passive spectators at elite sporting events. However, the benefits of more participation in sport are not limited only to the area of health. The Australian Institute of Criminology has issued a paper entitled `Crime Prevention Through Sport and Physical Activity'. The paper suggests that, although crime prevention is not the primary object of sport and physical activity, nevertheless it might be an extremely positive by-product. The paper specifically addresses the effect of sport in Aboriginal communities, and says:
When the carnivals (organised and run by Aborigines for Aborigines) are held, they act as catalysts for social and traditional cohesion. Harmful behaviour such as petrol sniffing, heavy drinking and violence are prohibited for the duration of the carnival, and prohibitions hold in the short term.
In addition, the paper makes brief mention of two special South Australian programs: Operation Flinders and Integrating Homeless Youth Through Sport. Operation Flinders is specifically designed with crime protection in mind, although by its nature it can assist only a small number of people at a time. The Integrating Homeless Youth Through Sport scheme, though singled out for praise for its `therapeutic approach', has not been evaluated for crime prevention outcomes.
Regardless of the good work that is being done through these two programs, it is apparent there is much more that might be done if we are serious about using involvement in sport and recreation purposefully as a crime prevention strategy. After examining a host of programs around Australia, the AIC discussion paper concludes:
The case studies . . . suggest it is possible to reduce the supply of motivated offenders by diverting young people from offending behaviour to engage in sport and other physical activities. The case studies also suggest that the key ingredients are not the competitive or the physical aspects of sport alone. On one level, they keep young people out of trouble. On another level, sport and physical activity can be used as strategies within a broader context involving, for example, development of values, social support and positive role models.
The paper recommends more study in this area to identify the factors that influence crime reduction and change in the young person. I would urge the state government, the Attorney-General and the Minister for Recreation and Sport to get together to examine this evidence and commission further research as the AIC recommends.
The Democrats will certainly welcome any initiative which, backed by appropriate research, is targeted properly at the twin aims of both promoting health and preventing crime in South Australia.
I would like to briefly refer, in this context, to a forum that was held here, convened by me in Parliament House last Thursday, looking at the aim to contain a bigger proportion of youth in rural regional South Australia. It is not specifically a crime prevention measure, although it is impossible to separate the benefits of providing adequate entertainment, encouragement, support and involvement of young people in their communities from the beneficial effects of that in diminishing, to a large extent, the tendency to unsocial and, at times, criminal behaviour.
The point of my submission in this instance is, first, that we must look at the positive initiatives of involving young people in a wide range of programs, not just as tokenism, and that a very substantial dividend could be drawn from the millions of dollars we put into organised, professional sport; and that a substantial portion of that amount of funding be made available to encourage, sustain and reward young people for being involved in a much wider range of sporting and other activities.
