Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

parkrun organises free, weekly, timed five-kilometre runs in local parks throughout the world. It's part of a global health and fitness movement that's seen over 4½ million registered park runners in 22 different countries using a thousand parks worldwide. Australia now has the second largest number of park runners in the world. The first parkrun event in Australia took place in April 2011 on the Gold Coast. It's grown to 304 parkruns across the country, with nearly half a million runners covering over 25 million kilometres. I am proud that one of those parkruns is held in my electorate of Kingsford Smith, the Kamay parkrun, on the picturesque shores of the Botany Bay, at Yarra Bay. I'm a regular participant in the Kamay parkrun, and it's inspiring to see large numbers of locals out running each weekend.

Parkrun's greatest attribute is its accessibility. It's run by local volunteers and it's free with a simple registration. You turn up and run. It's for all ages and abilities—children, the elderly, and those with disabilities. You can walk it, take your dog or push your wheelchair. Parkrun's signature characteristic is that it's free and accessible to all. It encourages people to get out, to exercise and enjoy the outdoors and to have a go.

I was recently contacted by a number of constituents who wanted to start a parkrun in Centennial Parklands in Sydney. Centennial Park, as Sydney's premiere parkland, regularly hosts numerous sporting events and physical activities. It's the perfect venue for parkrun, as the park services a large and growing population around Sydney and a number of communities around the park. But locals were shocked to learn that Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust would not allow parkrun to have their weekly run in their park, unless they paid a fee. This is the complete antithesis of everything that parkrun stands for. Parkrun is about accessibility and building camaraderie around exercise. Charging a fee undermines that mission. There are millions of park runners throughout the world who don't pay a fee and Australian park runners should not do so, as well. Parkrun should not be charged a fee by Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust for locals simply getting together on a Saturday morning to go for a run. Charging a fee is the complete opposite of everything that parkrun stand for: the open and accessible use of public parklands for recreation and fitness for all, not for a fee. It's why the nation prides itself on our public parks. It's also why we pay taxes—to ensure that public parklands are available for all for free. At a time when preventable diseases like obesity, diabetes and heart disease, related to a lack of physical activity, are on the increase in Australia, our governments and government appointed bodies should be doing more to encourage people to get out and exercise. Decisions such as that of Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust regarding parkrun undermine that goal.

It's also part of an alarming trend with respect to the management of Centennial Park. Over recent years I have been contacted by a number of local school principals and parents outraged by the steep increase in fees the park's trust has charged schools for the use of the playing fields for regular school sport. Last Australia Day, when I was at Centennial Park with my family for a game of cricket and a barbecue, I was horrified to see that a large portion of the park was actually closed off, with large fences and parking restricted, because there was a rock concert on there in a couple of days. People weren't able to access that part of the park. If the management of Centennial Park continues in this fashion, they may as well change the sign on the gates to the parklands to Centennial Parklands Pty Ltd. The people of Sydney don't like this increasing corporatisation of Centennial and Moore Parks.

In the wake of the meeting with the constituents who want to establish a parkrun event in Centennial Park, I have written to the CEO of Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust, Kim Ellis and asked Centennial Parklands to reconsider their decision to charge a fee to parkrun. I call on the trust members to reverse this appalling decision and allow parkrunners to come together and exercise in Sydney's premiere parklands for free. I have also established a petition on change.org, and I'm calling on members of the public to get behind this proposal and get behind the notion of parkrun being available to all in Centennial Park.