Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to bring to the attention of the House an appalling situation in my home state of South Australia. Following the very late release of the state budget by the South Australian Labor government, it was discovered in the small print that the state government was scrapping funding for swimming, aquatics and musical instrument programs in schools. After much lobbying and backlash, it was embarrassed into refunding the swimming program; however, the aquatics and music programs are still under review, and there is very real community concern that those programs will be scrapped.

Australia has one of the lowest drowning rates in the world. Given our vast and rugged coastline, that is a miraculous feat and one I credit largely to the water safety education provided to our young people in school. This is further reinforced by the high number of tourists who are victims of drowning at our beaches—tourists who do not have the benefit of swimming and aquatics programs in schools. For this reason, I joined with our local water education providers and together, through a large amount of public pressure, we were able to embarrass the state Labor government into refunding the swimming program. But we simply cannot ignore the fact that our aquatics and music programs are still under threat.

The small print of the state budget also revealed a massive cut to funding for PE programs in public schools, funding which was to be directed instead to the Premier’s Challenge, a sporting program designed for gifted and talented students. In times when we hear so much about the cruel results of childhood obesity, how can the state Labor government cut funding for students across the board simply to cater for a few who have the potential to become elite athletes?

What use is there in teaching our children about the great Australian spirit of mateship if they never get the opportunity to play in a team sport? What use is there in teaching our children about north, south, east and west if they never get the opportunity to read a map and use that skill in kayaking or orienteering? And how can we ignore music as a valuable part of a child’s education? The Premier is quite happy to fund a program for potential elite athletes, but what about those with the potential to become great Australian musicians?

I have some very low socioeconomic areas in my electorate. For some of the children in those areas, the school-provided aquatics, sport and music programs are the only access they have to such activities. Their parents cannot afford swimming lessons or netball, basketball, soccer or footy club subs. We cannot deny the value to these children of the opportunity to participate in these activities. These programs have, for years, encouraged our children to understand the value of teamwork and a new skill. Those providing these education opportunities have developed and grown these programs to ensure they have evolved over time to enable our young people not just to be taught about the specific activity but also to be given some very valuable life lessons.

Once that experience and those programs are gone, that evolution is lost forever. For some young people who are not academically inclined, these programs can be their only incentive for attending school. I know that, in my electorate, getting some of those children to school is half the battle. For some of these children who are not naturally gifted in academic subjects, sports and music are their only opportunity to be the head of the class and feel like they are achieving in their education. This issue and these cuts are not just about whether or not kids get to go kayaking or learn the recorder but also about the other valuable and irreplaceable benefits that these programs provide.

The terrible tragedy about this situation is that we will never know or understand the real and widespread benefits of these programs until they are lost and we count the impact on our children and grandchildren. The saddest thing about these cuts is that they are being made to afford the massive blow-out in public service numbers. The state Labor government have been irresponsible. In bowing to their union mates and through complete inefficiency allowing the public service to grow by huge numbers, they are costing our children and grandchildren a proper education.

If Mr Rann and his Labor government are going to go ahead with these cuts, then I would like Mr Rann to go down to local schools in my electorate and explain to young people that they can no longer learn a musical instrument because he would like an extra admin assistant in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, or explain to a class who no longer get to undertake aquatics that their program has been axed because he did not have enough media advisers. This is absolutely ridiculous. They no longer have anything to read and write about because they no longer get access to their basic— (Time expired)