Subjects: Sports policy; drugs in sport; health; war widows' pension
E&OE................................
JONES:
Prime Minister, good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning, Alan.
JONES:
This is something that's a bit of a passion for you, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, it is. I made it plain after the Olympics that we were going to do more. We were going to increase the funding, not only for the elite sportsmen and women but, importantly, also to increase participation at a grassroots level. Now, I do believe very strongly in getting as many young people playing sport as possible. It is the great antidote against bad behaviour, to use plain language, you get more young people involved in sport, you have fewer social problems, and that's why - we're putting an additional $161 million into Australian sport over the next four years and 122 of that goes for the high performance sporting system. But an additional $32 million goes to get greater numbers of people participating in sport at the grassroots level.
JONES:
You're talking about creating, and I quote your words, a climate in which school facilities will be made more widely available after school hours. Very important, how do you do it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you need to enlist the assistance of State governments. In the main, of course, they own the schools, they own 70% of the schools and I'm sure they'll be cooperative. We'll need to discuss that with them but it is a great under-utilised asset, those schools buildings, many of them with playing fields. I mean, a lot of them are used now. Through informal arrangements we have to expand that. We also intend to put an additional $7.4 million for anti-drugs research.
JONES:
Yes, I'll just come to that. You're providing extra funding for analytical research to improve detection of banned drugs. And you talk in the statement about drug free lifestyles. How can you hope to secure that goal through sport?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, to hammer the clear relationship between long-term sporting performance and staying off drugs. I mean, most people who get involved in sport care about physical fitness because they know that physical fitness has a direct impact on their sporting performance. And I believe that there is a strong anti-drugs mentality amongst the overwhelming majority of young men and women involved in sport in Australia. The misdeeds of a few are highlighted. The total abstinence of the great majority is rarely talked about. And I think, in a sense, by focussing, as we do on this issue, we are rewarding and underlining the importance of the behaviour of the great majority.
JONES:
It's a hell of a record, isn't it, Australia in sport, on a per capita basis? I mean, I know there's a lot of emphasis here today on elite sport and I think everyone understands that but all Australians do burst with pride at the kind of success that sporting people have secured for Australia over the years, haven't they?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh well, they have. It is one of the things that identifies us as a nation.
JONES:
And unifies us.
PRIME MINISTER:
And unifies us. I mean.and that's a good thing and it's something that we should not be the least bit reluctant to talk about. I mean, we put.at the beginning of the year we announced a programme of $2.9 billion to back our scientific and inventive ability. Now, every last dollar of that was well spent. Equally, it's important to look to the impact of sport on our daily lives and the unifying element in the Australian character that sport provides. It's something that breaks barriers, it's something that brings us together, it's something that.
JONES:
It's also a big industry, isn't it? I mean, I saw a recent study by the Confederation of Australian Sport, for them, by Ernst & Young, which indicated that household expenditure on sport totalled $5.9 billion, and close to a billion dollars on equipment and fees to participate - 220,000 employees generating $350 million in annual goods exports and close to a billion in taxation revenue. It's a big industry.
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course it is. And what we're doing today not only makes good sense for our national pride and not only makes good sense for our health, not only makes good sense in terms of encouraging better behaviour by young people but it is also a good investment because it is, as you say, an industry as well as A recreation and a national passion.
JONES:
Let me ask you the negative because you're going to get criticised today by people who say sports people get everything, a lot of money was wasted on the Olympic Games and yesterday a leaked document, which no doubt irritated you, said that there were going to be increased costs for diabetes patients, reduced Medicare specialist's rebates. What do you say about that in terms of priorities?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I'd say a couple of things. Firstly, people should not jump to conclusions until they see the budget. I'll say that again - don't jump to conclusions.
JONES:
Can I ask you a simple question, though, can I ask you a simple question - there's no way in world you'd be charging a diabetic more for a needle, would you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Alan, I can simply say this, I'm not going to get into the business of responding yes or no. I simply make the general observation.
JONES:
It would be easier to say no, though.
PRIME MINISTER:
.it won't be a mean-spirited budget. And can I also say, on the general question of aid for sport, let me remind you that despite the very high level of expenditure on sport, naturally the Government spends many times more, much more, on things like health, the arts, all of those things get more.
JONES:
Shouldn't you call the Minister for Health, the Minister for Illness, and the Minister for Sport, the Minister for Health?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I understand the point. I don't think anybody would understand what you were talking about. We've become so used to the Minister being in charge, looking after or improving the health of the nation [inaudible]
JONES:
But people say, if we improve the involvement of people in sport we could save anything up to $450 million a year in our health bills.
PRIME MINISTER:
I think you'd save a lot more because a healthy lifestyle reduces the call on our health services. If half the number of people who now smoke, stopped smoking tomorrow, that would have a dramatic impact on the nation's health bill. If people adopted better dietary habits, that would have a dramatic impact. And to the extent that you can encourage more young people to participate and, importantly, continue playing sport as they grow older, that's very important, then you do have a much healthier.
JONES:
And that's what this is about.
PRIME MINISTER:
.I'm going to announce today.
JONES:
Just one final thing - and you'd expect me to say this at a time when we're talking about money because it's ANZAC Day tomorrow - and the Hawke Government, and you were in the Parliament on May 28, 1984, denied War Widows' pensions to war widows who remarried before that date. I have written on many occasions to your government as to why a war widow who, in fact, looked after someone during war and went through all those privations and endured them, why they should be classified as being unworthy of a pension when those who remarry after 1984 are. Or to put another point to you, Prime Minister, if a veteran marries a 25-year-old bride, or married after his wife died and then the veteran died, the 25-year-old bride gets a war widows' pension for life. There are only a couple of thousand of these people. In the budget scheme of things, is there room on ANZAC Day to remove that discrimination from war widows who married before 1984.
PRIME MINISTER:
Alan, that, along with a number of other proposals, has been put to us by some of those people involved and also by the veterans' community and they are all being looked at in preparing the budget. I'm not going to respond to particular things. There are a number of things being put to us. That is one of them. And a number of other things have been put to us and we are looking at our capacity to respond to what's been put to us. I can't say any more and I'm not going to say any more than that. It's always a question of balancing priorities. There's a number of things, including that issue, have been put to us and I am certainly aware of your very passionate advocacy of the cause of those widows. And you have written to the Government about that and I have met their representatives. It is one of a number of proposals that has been put to us by people speaking on behalf of veterans and widows.
JONES:
All right, thank you for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]