Estimates - Sport - Aquatic Centre Funding
Ms BURNET - Thank you. Minister, I do have a question, and it relates to child safety as well, because peak water safety bodies are warning of a concerning dangerous trend across Australia where nearly half of all year 6 students can no longer fulfil basic water survival requirements. It's a big issue for health and wellbeing. With regional and community public pools across Tasmania facing extreme pressures from rising operating costs and ageing infrastructure, schools and families are finding it harder and more expensive to access local lanes for swimming training and survival. When community councils are forced to beg for state funding to keep basic aquatic centres open or redevelop facilities like the Glenorchy War Memorial Pool, how can your government justify multimillion sports consultant studies while grassroots public pools, the very places where Tasmanian children learn the basic survival skills that prevent them drowning, are left under-resourced, and I'd include the Doone Kennedy Aquatic Centre. Now, I know it's run by Hobart Council, but this is a state, like a regional facility.
Mr DUIGAN - Yes, it is.
Ms BURNET - Not just, and I want to talk about all of those other regional pools as well.
Mr DUIGAN - Yeah, which are by and large, and typically as I would think of it, council-owned facilities.
Ms BURNET - It's a pretty important part of the state's infrastructure.
Mr DUIGAN - No doubt, but to the point that they are typically council-owned facilities, I'm not, I'm struggling to get to the nub of your question. What is it you're seeking that the government do?
Ms BURNET - Well, I'm concerned about the reduced rates of learn-to-swim availability, people being able to afford to getting that basic skill under their belt, and for their kids. So, what's the government doing to spend more on making sure that those swimming facilities, particularly in the south - I mean, you've spent a bit on the Glenorchy Pool, but the Doone Kennedy Aquatic Centre, it's a regional facility - why aren't you spending to help preserve that and make it better?
Mr DUIGAN - Look, I think we would need to be careful in taking ownership of everybody's assets as a government. That's one thing I would say: we need to be making sure we spend our resources properly. We are doing, as has been discussed earlier in the piece here, some work around community sporting infrastructure, and I'm not sure where the pools piece sits in community sporting infrastructure and, I guess, the broader learn-to-swim piece is likely a DECYP thing.
Ms BURNET - It's the facilities.
Mr DUIGAN - But I do take your point about problematic rates of people who can swim.
Mr STEWART - So, there's a couple of elements to that question. Certainly, in the work we're doing around our strategy for community sporting infrastructure, pools will be part of that consideration, just like any other sporting infrastructure. We have actually done some work with Hobart City Council to redirect some funding to the Hobart Aquatic Centre. I'm just tracking down the detail on that for you.
Ms BURNET - Okay, it would be nice to see that figure. Thanks.
Mr STEWART - The other side of the coin on this is around the work that we do through Active Tasmania to support the Royal Life Saving Society, who recently celebrated 80 years of activity in Tasmania. We invest $100,000 a year into our partnership with them so that they can deliver their programs, including learn to swim. We also have a very strong relationship and provide pretty significant funding to Surf Life Saving Tasmania. So, yes, we could do more, but, I guess, with the limited funding we have, we fund both infrastructure and we're including pools and other aquatic infrastructure in terms of those plans, but also we fund the activities and operations of those organisations.
Later
Mr DUIGAN - I can provide some information around pool funding since 2024. The government has provided to the Hobart Aquatic Centre $1,129,371; to the Cressy War Memorial Pool $25,000, to the Glenorchy Pool $5 million; and to the Port Huon Aquatic Centre $489,697.