David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I definitely agree with this motion because I strongly believe in the benefits of golf. It's a very popular game. There are 3½ million Australians who play golf, aged between 18 and 79. If you include children, you might even top that by another 100,000. In my electorate of Lyne, I have—and I've mentioned just about all of them—Camden Haven; Wauchope; Port Macquarie, across the border at the edge of my electorate; Emerald Downs, likewise; Taree; Harrington; Forster Tuncurry Golf Club; Dungog; Gloucester; and nearby Newcastle.

Golf is one of the biggest sports in Australia. The health benefits, both physical and mental, are extensive. It has many positive flow-on effects. It's an active, healthy lifestyle and it generates vital open spaces. Green spaces and environments are created by golf courses. They're also cultural hubs. They're a big employer. Annually, there are over $3.3 billion worth of benefits to the Australian economy from golf. The actual expenditure by households is quite staggering, and golf tourism is a major industry. Golf tourism generates $3.6 billion. Household expenditure, expenditure on the facilities themselves and payments by golfers is about $10 billion.

One of the things that many people are not aware of is it's a very egalitarian sport. Anyone can play it. And while the wonders of the modern world are many, one of them is the Stableford handicap, which means you can play with Greg Norman or Chris Smith or anyone. And if you've got a handicap of 41, you might catch him or her! It is a great game.

It is an environmental treasure. Did you know that open green spaces, golf courses, are right up there. There's greater thermal comfort, especially in city areas, like around Centennial Park, where they're trying to close down half a golf course and turn it into green space. So they're closing a golf course, which is full of green space, to create green space. Go figure that out. Connect the dots. Aha! There's real estate involved. That means, across the road, many more real estate developments can happen because if the golf course is attributed to a golf course and not to the owners of the land across the road then, hey presto, they can't build high-rises. So if you want to work out what's going on in Sydney, look at the real estate and follow the money.

There are also benefits for water filtration and purification. Many golf courses are part of sewage systems, natural sewage systems. Soil and vegetation benefit from it. There's reduced impact from flooding and management of storm water. Carbon reductions from emissions are absorbed by these golf courses. Each year, carbon sequestration services from golf courses total $6 million—I think some of the golf clubs need to get some carbon credits out of their business as well! There's enough oxygen produced by all those plants to support 85,000 human beings. There are also the local ecosystems. There are more insects per square 100 metres than there are in ordinary suburbia.

It is a great game. You can play it with your children, you can play it with your wife, you can play with total strangers and at the end of it you've got a friend for life on many occasions. And you perpetually have something to worry about apart from your job or parliament or anything like that. It's to be commended.

I support the golf industry because of all those benefits. It is not a game for rich tossers. There are more golf courses in Australia than in most other countries—1,600 of them in fact. That's why we have so many professional golfers. Look at the women's golf circuit; look at the seniors, or geriatric, golf circuit—it's a game for all ages and all causes. I thoroughly commend people to take up golf. And I ask the New South Wales government to keep the Centennial Park golf course as a golf course. All those people in high-rises all use it; there are 3,000 people every day on Centennial Park golf course.

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