Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability) Share this | Hansard source

Play Our Way—well, the girls of today aren't going to be able to play anything, because things have been so delayed by this government. It is quite extraordinary. When I go out to local sporting clubs across my electorate, one of the things that they say to me is that they really miss those grants that the coalition had put in place to support grassroots sport and grassroots activity.

We know that this is really important from a very young age. I just came off the parliamentary inquiry into diabetes, and one of the big outcomes was that there is not enough investment in sport and activity for our young people. The communities that are most impacted are those that have socioeconomic disadvantage. It's really disappointing that, after the government made this announcement, 12 months ago, there are local sporting clubs out there just dying for upgrades but nothing is being done. Meanwhile, our kids are not getting the support that they need to be active, to be healthy, to be out there and participating in sport.

We look at young girls in particular. This is the best time for them to be able to do that. We have so much inspiration from our sporting stars, from the Matildas to Jess and Noemie Fox, who are constituents in my electorate of Lindsay. These are great sporting champions. You've got the elite part of sport, and that trickles down to grassroots sport. Now is the time that we should have that investment in our local sporting clubs while young girls are looking to these Olympic champions and these are sporting champions across every single sporting code. But what are they getting? They're once again getting a government that promises the world and delivers very little.

Community organisations are run by volunteers. These are volunteers that invest so much time, so much energy and so much passion into development of kids in sport and to our local community sports organisations. For them to put grants together is no easy feat. They are volunteers that work, they are parents and they don't have specific grants expertise—that's for sure—so it's a big deal for a local organisation to put a grant together, and they feel like they've been let down, because nothing is happening. They've put their time in, so why isn't the government returning that same effort and at least letting them know how they're going with the application process? We know that this announcement by the government was a back-foot response to our $250 million of investment into sporting infrastructure across the country, which was actually making a difference to local sporting groups. It was making a difference, with kids being healthier and more active and was particularly making a difference to girls in sport.

Like all of us, I have been to lots of local sporting clubs and lots of local sporting grounds, gone to those bathrooms and seen what a disgraceful situation it is for young girls to have to get changed in dirty old change rooms with the boys. Our investment in that was really key, and we need more investment like that. Our local sporting clubs really should not be at the other end of policymaking on the run when we have a government here that is more interested in photo opportunities. I've seen it myself in my local community: they don't invite the local member to participate in activities in their own community. They come in, they take the photo and they leave again. Unfortunately for our local sports clubs right now and particularly those that have an interest in investing in young girls in sport, they're being left with absolutely nothing.

On the back end of the Olympic Games, now is the time for the Albanese Labor government to be taking more of an interest in the future of sport in our country and in the future of girls' sport in particular. Let these clubs know exactly where they stand.

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