Subjects: The Centenary of Federation cricket match
E&OE................................
PRIME MINISTER:
The purpose of the news conference is to announce that Geoff and I have agreed that as a very important event in the celebration of the Centenary of Federation there will be staged at Manuka Oval on Thursday the 5th of April this year a cricket match between two teams - one of them to be called the Prime Minister's XI and the other, the Chairman of ATSIC's XI.
And it's a very important event symbolically because it recognises the importance of sport and particularly cricket to all Australians, indigenous and other Australians, and also particularly recalls that the very first Australian team to tour England was a team of Aboriginal cricketers in 1868. And it will be an opportunity at the beautiful, recently and very magnificently enhanced Manuka Oval. And I'm delighted to welcome Mr Justice Gallop, the Chairman of the ACT Cricket Association to this news conference this morning.
It will be an event as a very important part of the celebration of the Centenary. It's recognition of the place of sport in the lives of all Australians, and also it will be an opportunity to put on display young cricketers in both of the teams. It's intended that the bulk of both teams will comprise professional active competent cricketers. There may be some others perhaps participating to add a little bit of rounding and texture to the occasion. But I look forward to it.
It was a proposal that was put to me by Geoff in the spirit of wanting to find some good sporting events as well as many other events to recognise the Centenary. I agreed and I do want to thank the Australian Cricket Board. We worked out the details with Denis and with Malcolm Speed, and the Australian Cricket Board's cooperation and patronage has really made the event possible Denis and I want to thank you. And I know Geoff will want to do likewise.
I hope the event is very strongly supported not only in Canberra but in the broader Australian community. We have a year of celebration and this is but one but at very important one symbolically because as an aid to reconciliation staging sporting events particularly in our national sport is a very very important symbolic gesture and I think it will be warmly received by the Australian community. But Geoff, you may want to say a few words.
GEOFF CLARK:
Yeah, thanks Prime Minister and Denis. I think that this opportunity to play the gentlemanly game of cricket, to include Aboriginal people after a century of omission from the game I suppose, I think it's about time, and I'm quite honoured that the Prime Minister has taken up the challenge that this cricket match does occur between the Prime Minister's XI, the Chairman's XI. As you know the first side to tour England was an all-Aboriginal side. They came from western Victoria where I come from - Chapparong people, Jarga Jarwy people, Gundage Marwa people. And I think it's most appropriate that we put this back on the agenda in the true spirit of the game. As I said it's a gentleman's game and hopefully it will be a great success. I think it does contribute to us participating in these historical occasions like the Centenary and I think that there's no doubt for the day we will be put inside the politics and we'll have a very enjoyable day. And we hope that everybody out in the general public supports it as well.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] suggestion there's a gap between the haves and have nots.
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm on holidays apart from this announcement.
JOURNALIST:
How much of the cricket are you going to be seeing of the Sydney Test?
PRIME MINISTER:
Me? I'm going to come every day. I'm on leave. I've come back from leave to make this announcement and I'll be spending the rest of the Test here. Why not? It's a good way to start your holidays.
JOURNALIST:
How important is this match in the whole context of reconciliation?
PRIME MINISTER:
How important? Well I think it's important because you know how much sport means to all Australians and to have a match between the Prime Minister's XI and the Chairman of ATSIC's XI in our national game in the middle of the Centenary year in the national capital with the enthusiastic support of the Australian Cricket Board, with the participation inevitably of some very top flight players, that has to say a lot. It means that we take it very seriously, we treat it very importantly, and it really is, I think it was a wonderfully inspired suggestion of Geoff's and it really was. And it was one of those things that as soon as he said it I said it I said what a terrific idea. But he thought of it and good luck to you Geoff. It was a terrific idea and I think it will be a great event.
GEOFF CLARK:
I think one of the historical facts of that is not only does the cricket side came from there but I think Mr Wills also lived in a little place called Moyston where he's seen Aboriginal people play a form of football which looked a bit like Australian Rules football. And I think it's also an historical situation whereby cricket and football originated, the concepts originated there, well certainly not cricket but I think the skill of the athletes of the Aboriginal people there and unfortunately I think cricket has been left behind because the AFL competition will enjoy about an 8% participation rate amongst Aboriginal youths now and I think there's no doubt that Australia's cricket could certainly benefit from that sort of percentage of Aboriginal players. And this game will be a promotion of that to ensure that Aboriginal kids take up the bat and grab the ball and start becoming professional and very top rate cricketers.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] proposal of having a plebiscite for Aborigines [inaudible] issue of a treaty. Would you support this idea?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he can talk about anything he's proposed but...
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look I don't really want to mix two issues. We've called a news conference to talk about this match. I'm not going to get into other things. I declined another question earlier and I'll give the same response to that.
JOURNALIST:
Do you not see this [inaudible] this match is important in terms of reconciliation, but the plebiscite's not something that's going to [inaudible] for 18 months. And do you not think it might aid in the long-term move towards reconciliation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I've expressed some views on that broad subject before. You're very familiar with them and I don't propose to say any more.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, what's so special about the Sydney Test, the New Year's Test?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well any Test match is special to cricket lovers, and it's the first Test match of the celebratory year of the Centenary of Federation and it also is the final Test in a series between Australia and the West Indies and I guess for many Australians of my generation and younger contests between Australia and the West Indies has really captured our emotions and dominated our interests more than perhaps any other sport, many other Test matches, not to denigrate the importance of games against other countries, though it all sort of neatly came together. But this is the first Test match of the Centenary year and it's become I think a very important opportunity to honour the role of cricket in the history of Australia over the last one hundred years and that's why the match between my XI and Geoff Clark's XI is so tremendously important. Okay.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] might captain these teams?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'll have to discuss that with the selectors. I may, you know, I may have one or two suggestions but they would be communicated very privately with the selectors and it will be up to them.
JOURNALIST:
You're one of the selectors?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's a mystical process involved in these things recognising that it's a Prime Minister's XI but also recognising the role of the selectors of the Australian Cricket Board. And there's always a very happy outcome.
JOURNALIST:
Have you given consideration as to [inaudible] who actually gets to be there in the crowd, younger people...?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well yes, we are going to make sure that there's plenty of opportunity for participation and I've got a few ideas on that which aren't fully developed yet. But we'll be very keen to give everybody an opportunity of participating and it'd be very nice to see the involvement of a lot of school children who follow cricket and who are also perhaps given the opportunity to understand the symbolism of the occasion as well as enjoy the game of cricket. Thanks.
[Ends]