Debates Day 3 - Thursday 1 May 2003
Parliamentary Record 11
Debates for 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 9th Assembly 2001 - 2005
2003-05-01
Made available by the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
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Debates
Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory
Darwin
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DEBATES - Thursday 1 May 2003 which deprived the people of Yulara of the right to have a say in their future. A member inteijecting. Mr AH KIT: I will pick up the inteijection - no, I shouldnt. I should not, Madam Speaker. I will be a good boy. He cannot help himself. This government is working towards establishing a process for community representation at Yulara, something about which I have not received any correspondence from the member for Macdonnell. However, an advisory committee has been established and the committee met for the first time earlier this month. The Yulara Community Advisory Committee is comprised of six Ayres Rock Resort employees and six residents employed by other organisations. The role of the Yulara Community Advisory Committee will be to be provide advice on infrastructure and planning matters in Yulara. It is also there to have input into the management of community events and social, cultural and environmental issues. I take this opportunity to advise the House of the many sport and recreation commitments and initiatives in Central Australia. The government has committed a total o f $5m to upgrade facilities at the Traeger Park sporting complex in Alice Springs. In September and October 2002, the Alice Springs Hockey Centre was upgraded at a cost of $800 000 as stage 1 of this commitment. In consultation with user groups, the Alice Springs Town Council has prepared a master plan for the park which forms the basis of planning for future development. Also the Impaija Cup, an indigenous national cricket carnival, was held in Alice Springs from 27 February to 2 March 2003. The carnival has two tiers of competition: a state level competition with all states represented; and the Impaija Shield which is a community-based competition. Northern Territory teams that competed in the 2003 Impaija Shield competition included the Tiwi Islands, Darwin, Katherine, Borroloola, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs and an invitation team. In all, over 200 indigenous cricketers attended the Impaija Cup 2003. Northern Territory Indigenous Sports Program Officers from various regions were also involved in the coordination and organisation of the competition. The Impaija Cup is fully endorsed by the Australian Cricket Board and forms part of the Australian Cricket Boards Strategic Plan 2002-04 encompassed in the new vision of Two Strong Cultures, Australias new cricket tradition. Hats off to the local cricket association, along with the Northern Territory Cricket Association for the support that they provide for the Impaija Cup. The goal o f this vision is to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and excellence in cricket. Indigenous Sports Program Officers Ken Vowles and Peter Lake were selected in the National Indigenous Squad at this years Impaija Cup. I am pleased to advise members that we now have 14 indigenous Sport and Recreation officers throughout Central Australia. In November last year, my department arranged for an engineers report to ascertain the extent of structural damage to the swimming pool at Ltyentye Apurte. The government contributed to funding the required repairs in partnership with ATSIC and the community store. I was pleased to be able to attend the reopening of the swimming pool earlier this year. I told participants at the swimming carnival that I genuinely looked forward to the community entering a team or two in the Alice Springs championships whenever they may be held. The installation of swimming pools provides many benefits in remote communities that are additional to the obvious sporting and recreational opportunities. Some communities have adopted a no school, no pool policy that has greatly assisted school retention rates. There is also a range of direct health benefits attributed to regular swimming exercise. I am keen to develop funding partnerships with communities, Commonwealth agencies and other bodies such as ATSIC to increase the number of pools, in a regional sense at least, so that they can be installed and provide further benefits to those people in the particularly remote areas of the Northern Territory. The list of initiatives in Central Australia generated by my department is, I believe, impressive. Another recent example is the Alice Springs Outback Adventure Cycling Race. Our government supported this highly successful inaugural event with special assistance funding of $20 000, in conjunction with the Northern Territory governments Major Events company. The event was organised as an initiative of Mr Jack Oldfield, a local Alice Springs adventure cyclist. Sixty-five competitors took part in the seven-day event, which covered a course of 340 km along rugged paths in the MacDonnell Ranges. The competitors included five overseas and 46 interstate cyclists. Because of the success of the race, the organisers are planning for it to be an annual feature on the Alice Springs sporting calendar. This government, with myself as the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Local Government and especially Regional Development, is working hard to 3972