Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Today, I join the Liberal mayor of Blacktown council to condemn the latest cuts to services in Western Sydney by the New South Wales state Liberal government. As Barry O'Farrell spends millions to bring major league baseball to the Sydney Cricket Ground; he has ripped $736,000 in annual funding from Sydney's premier baseball facility at Blacktown International Sportspark, jeopardising the future of baseball in New South Wales and leaving the ratepayers of Blacktown to foot the bill.

Recently, the New South Wales Minister for Sport and Recreation, Gabrielle Upton, the member for Vaucluse, who obviously has as much commitment to service provision in Western Sydney as her federal counterpart, met with Blacktown City Council and told them they were going to slash this funding. This is a world-class facility, purpose built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and now home to the New South Wales Blues, the New South Wales Breakers, the Greater Western Sydney Giants Academy, the Sydney Blue Sox, New South Wales softball and hundreds of junior athletics carnivals. 'But who cares?', say Minister Upton and Premier O'Farrell—the Minister for Western Sydney, no less—as they rip $736,000 from this facility, tearing up an agreement for this contribution that has operated since 2000.

True to form, this decision has been met with silence by local Western Sydney Liberal MPs, including the members for Riverstone, Penrith and Londonderry, whose communities utilise these facilities. While Premier O'Farrell heralds the arrival of baseball he is ripping money out of grass roots sport in Sydney's west. Shame on the premier, his minister and those pathetic local Liberal state MPs.

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