Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of attending the Belmont Little Athletics Centre opening day at the Gerry Archer Athletics Track in Cloverdale, within my electorate of Swan. In its 39th season, the Belmont program is worth applauding because of the important contribution that Little Athletics has made to local communities in Swan and across Australia. On Saturday morning I was able to present the new centre captains for the 2008-09 season with their badges. Hannah Kentish from the Forrestfield club—who was represented by her father, Kevin—and Peter Murphy from the Kewdale club were named as the centre captains, and popular choices they were.

The Belmont centre has five participating clubs, and they are the Carlisle-Rivervale club, the Forrestfield club, the High Wycombe club, the Kalamunda-Lesmurdie club and the Kewdale club. The chairperson, Bradley Edwards, heads up a fantastic committee and a hardworking group of volunteers. As we know, without volunteers, sporting clubs and competitions like this would not exist. The centre was happy to announce the use of their new timekeeping gates, which have been installed since last year’s season. During the off-season, the centre’s clubhouse was upgraded, and I attended the opening of the upgraded building. This upgrade was greatly appreciated by the members and has contributed to the increased membership of the club. The Belmont City Council was instrumental in this upgrade and Mayor Glenys Godfrey attended Saturday’s morning ceremony.

Unfortunately, Little Athletics receives no federal funding, as it is not recognised by the Australian Sports Commission as the representative of that sport. This should be addressed so that associations like Little Athletics can be financially assisted. (Time expired)