Estimates Debate — Vote Sport and Recreation

Tēnā koutou. Ki te Whare e tū nei, tēnā koe. Ki te Mana Whakawā, tēnā koe. Ki ngā tāngata o Aotearoa, tēnā koutou. Ki ngā mema Pāremata, tēnā koutou. Ki ngā tāngata o Wharekauri, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

I want to begin my mihi today by acknowledging the people of Wharekauri, the Chatham Islands, who recently hosted the Parliamentary Sports Trust for an extravaganza of sport in the Chatham Islands. Although the members of Parliament who participated in it—I acknowledge those members across the Chamber who were there as well, Kelvin Davis and Moana Mackey—were unsuccessful in our sporting endeavours in the Chatham Islands, we learnt much about the issues that Chatham Islanders face. I have no doubt that today as I speak in the Chamber they will be in their crayfish boats and cod boats; they will not be listening to Parliament. But we learnt a lot about the issues that they face in terms of transport, energy, and economic development.

The Parliamentary Sports Trust travels around New Zealand to raise money for charity, and it builds partnerships across the House. It is good to focus on what parliamentarians are doing very well.

Aside from the Parliamentary Sports Trust, I want to speak today about the Government’s plan for sport and recreation. It is more than just a plan. Minister McCully came into Government with a number of key priorities that he wanted to deliver in sport and recreation. He is not just planning for these things; he is getting on and delivering them. We have seen a number of key announcements that deliver on those priorities. We are getting on with the plan and getting things done.

The first priority that Minister McCully had was to protect central government funding levels for sport and recreation. He has done that; in fact, he has lifted the funding. The second priority was to reduce expenditure on social marketing and websites, which proliferated under the previous Government. Those websites talked about getting out and doing activity, as opposed to things that actually get kids active and out of the classroom, which is exactly what this Government is doing. The third priority was to increase the support for sporting opportunities for school-aged children. We have done that and we are delivering on it as we go. The fourth priority was to provide greater certainty of funding for high performance, and to improve systems and infrastructure to help take our athletes to the next level. Significant progress has been made across all of those priorities. As I said, we are not just planning; we are getting out and delivering on our plans.

This Government is delivering results for New Zealand. Nowhere can we see that happening more than in the area of sport and recreation. Specifically, we have seen central government funding for sport and recreation increase significantly, despite a recessionary environment and really tough budget constraints. We have stopped the social marketing campaigns such as Mission-On. They have been discontinued. We have reprioritised that funding to support Kiwisport, which was launched by the Prime Minister in August 2009. Immediately after we came into Government, we launched programmes to help kids get out there and take on sport. Kiwisport provides approximately $20 million per year directly to provide more opportunities for all school-aged children to participate in organised sport.

Another important thing that we delivered recently is a significant boost to high-performance sport, which was announced by the Prime Minister on 11 June. It included the largest increase in investment in high-performance sport, which is an excellent initiative.

Kiwisport and high-performance sports investment are excellent initiatives. There are two tranches of funding for Kiwisport. There is an investment of $12 million into primary and secondary schools, and $8 million has been allocated through regional sports trusts. If organisations are out there doing great things around the country, they are those regional sports trusts. They are out there in the community leveraging the taxpayers’ contribution out of communities and delivering things to schools. In my own area of Hawke’s Bay and Napier, we have Sport Hawke’s Bay. It is one of the leading trusts in this area, and it is doing great things with Kiwisport. Thank you.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Crown Research Institutes agreed to.

Vote Defence agreed to.

Vote Defence Force agreed to.

Vote Research, Science and Technology