Children have rights too

Will you all just leave our kids out of it?
UnionsWA is taking its fight against the government's WorkChoices legislation to the soccer pitch paying $8800 to sponsor a junior soccer club in Western Australia.
The union argues this an appropriate move because the Howard Government legislation will impact on parents' time with their kids.
And they are entitled to that opinion. They should also be entitled to sponsor junior sport. What they shouldn't be entitled to do is turn a club full of junior players - starting at just six - into mobile political billboards.
By putting their logos and the slogan "Your Rights at Work" on the jerseys of 16 soccer teams, Unions WA has politicised the junior members of Tuart Hill Soccer Club.
In a way you can't blame the club. Cash-strapped junior sports teams around the country have had to find innovative ways to make ends meet.
Many will argue that if big business can sponsor junior sport surely the unions should have the right too.
And they should. But there's a world of difference between paying for your logo on the boundary hoarding or buying a spot on the back of the club's newsletter and effectively buying a spot on the backs and fronts of children.
It's not as though a junior player can opt out an wear a different jersey. A uniform is a uniform. You wear the union colours or you sit on the sidelines.
But there's a bigger picture here - and that it just what is appropriate when it comes to the sponsorship of junior sport?
Many of the dollars flowing into the teams across the country come from the fast food industry. We want our children to play organised sport to help defeat the childhood obesity epidemic then when they get there we reward players with vouchers for burgers and fries.
Just as advertising of junk food in children's television needs strict regulation so too does its sponsorship of kids' sport.
Our kids deserve to be able to kick a football, swim a few laps or throw a netball without being targeted by marketing gurus.
Work choices are important. Play choices for our kids equally so.