Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. This government is absolutely committed to ensuring and maximising the participation of women and girls in sports of all kinds across Australia, and that is demonstrated in a range of our policies, including the one that the senator has referred to. As Minister for Women, I played no role in the specific administration of the program, but I would not expect to, Senator. I would not expect to because the sport program itself is comprehensive in addressing these issues.

As the Prime Minister has indicated—and, in fact, as I think any of us who seriously look at our communities and who seriously look at the changing levels of the participation of young women and girls, particularly in sport, would recognise—there are countless examples of inadequate facilities across this country. As a government, we took a decision to support those girls, those young women and other women into sport. If you choose not to do that, that's a matter for you, but we choose to support the increased participation of girls and women in sport.

In fact, while we're on the subject of girls and women in sport, I might draw the attention of the chamber to the Women's T20 World Cup, which is coming up very, very shortly. If you can be at the MCG on Sunday 8 March, you can contribute to scoring an international world record for Australia—the largest number of attendees at a women's sporting event in the history of the world: the Women's T20 World Cup. I would encourage all of those opposite, all of those in the other chamber and everyone behind me to be part of that world-breaking event.