Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for SPORT and EVENTS, Mr DUIGAN
This is a follow-up question to the earlier one. Minister, you might have seen some media reports from earlier this week where retired NRL star P.J. Marsh was talking about the critical importance of concussion education. He is backing calls from Concussion Australia for education to be delivered annually, independent of sporting bodies, and provided to players, parents, club officials and coaches. For the past few years we have been through correspondence and questions advocating for the Tasmanian government to employ dedicated concussion education program officers to help ensure the community is brought up to speed.
Given the federal government has dropped the ball on community education for concussion and ignored Senate inquiry recommendations, will you commit to taking a close look at what more the Tasmanian government could do in this critical area? Do you recognise this is an area where you could make a real difference in Tasmania and that we could lead the way nationally?
ANSWER
Mr President, regarding what the Tasmanian government is doing and potentially can do, I can provide the following information that through Active Tasmania: the government has programs and initiatives in place to educate the public regarding concussion in sport and to mitigate the risks of concussion on individuals, including: annual funding to the Australian Sports Medicine Federation; publication, maintenance and promotion of concussion resources; maintenance of the Sports Medicine Network and promotion of Sports Australia concussion in sports resources. That is, in broad terms, what the government is doing. I take your point that this is a space that we need to be pretty well aware of. We play contact sports. They come with increasingly known risks. I would be happy to take advice about things that we could do in that space.
Ms O’Connor – We will keep the conversation going.
