Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Can I initially thank the chairman for his role, his leadership and his kind words. In some respects, I suppose, it is with some sadness that I speak to this excellent report of the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee. The fact that we had to prepare such a comprehensive report, I think, is a reflection on what has not been, and there is no doubt that it is ‘about time’. That of course is the title of the report and it is taken from the last paragraph of the introductory chapter, which reads:

It is about time that women have enhanced opportunities, access, media coverage and roles in all sports and activities.

This report, in part, is reflective and therefore a report which documents the exasperation of many women and men about a lack of progress in many facets of the role of women in sport. It is, nevertheless, a positive report. It contains positive recommendations, positive observations and positive suggestions. As chapter 2 of the report says:

One submission, reflecting much of the evidence received during the inquiry, commented that:

The individual, community and societal benefits of regular participation in sport and physical activity are well documented, as are the risks and costs of physical inactivity. Physical inactivity is considered to be the leading risk factor contributing to preventable illness and morbidity among women in Australia.

That was evidence given by New South Wales Sport and Recreation.

I will talk about some of the recommendations in the limited time I have, but I think this report shows we need to break the cycle. There is no media coverage and there are no role models, and I think that has impacted on the participation of girls, as it has impacted on the participation of women who have been in sport and discontinued their participation. It is also reflected in the lack of women in leadership roles. The report says in chapter 5:

Negative perceptions and unreasonable expectations impact on the acceptance of women in leadership roles at all levels.

We simply have to break this cycle. It is just not good enough that, in this country, there are the sorts of barriers that we heard of time after time, from witness after witness. And this was not overtly gender based or feminist based—the report is not and the evidence most certainly was not. I think the committee got firsthand from the witnesses examples of their levels of frustration at what is happening. It is about time that was changed.

I think this is a fantastic report with very good recommendations. A lot of us worked very hard to make sure that this was a unanimous report and that we had a constructive document which we could take to this government, the state governments, other recreation authorities, the AOC, the Australian Sports Commission, the national sporting organisations and sport in general. I hope that future action will be benchmarked against the evidence that this committee received.

We have some recommendations in there to make sure that there is some benchmarking and, in the 40 seconds I have left, I will refer to just two recommendations. The first is that we are recommending to the government that up to $3 million per annum, to be reviewed after three years, is put into the Australian Sports Commission to provide specific opportunities for greater ongoing coverage of women’s sport. We believe this is fundamental to breaking this cycle. It is just not good enough that women’s sport in this country is being treated the way it is by the media. I do not say that it is overt; I just think it is a lack of understanding of what is needed. The second recommendation that I want to draw to the Senate’s attention is— (Time expired)