Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to inform the House of the Rudd government’s $2.9 million funding package for the Ringwood Soccer and Multipurpose Sports Pavilion. The Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, the Hon. Anthony Albanese, inspected the present run-down and dilapidated facilities, dating from 1962, whilst at the ground with me for the official announcement on 4 May. They are very dilapidated, believe me. There is almost nothing left of the wooden seats. This funding is part of the government’s $800 million Community Infrastructure Program, which is investing in local infrastructure right across Australia. As part of the Rudd government’s economic stimulus package, projects such as this are supporting jobs in local electorates, not only in my seat of Deakin but across-the-board. Major works on this project will commence as soon as the current soccer season finishes in September.

Being a community project, there are other funding partners as well. The state government of Victoria is contributing $300,000 to the project and the Maroondah City Council is contributing $350,000. Combined, the funding total is $3.55 million, which will allow for demolition of the old pavilion and construction of a new multipurpose facility to accommodate the increased demand for junior and female soccer participation. Inside, the new facility will accommodate both male and female change rooms, and showers with disabled access—something the existing pavilion simply was not built for and does not have. It will also incorporate a boxing gymnasium that will house the Michael Victor Canavan Boxing Association’s nearly 100 members, who currently have no fixed training facility—in fact, it is a carport. A terraced and covered spectator area will also be included along with car-parking space for up to 100 cars and buses, ramps, and outdoor lighting for the playing field—all a great improvement on what is currently there. A brand-new synthetic turf pitch will replace the uneven and often rock hard pitch that is currently in place and which quite often has no grass whatsoever.

Of course, when it comes to sporting facilities it is not just what is on the outside that counts but what happens inside as well. The Ringwood City Soccer Club has been playing at this ground since it opened in 1962 and in that time I do not think there has ever been any work done on the facilities there. It is an awfully long time to keep using an asset. Ringwood City Soccer Club has two senior teams, ladies teams and approximately 12 junior teams, and I am sure the development of this new facility will lead to an increase in the number of young players, especially girls, as the word gets around about our great new sports facility in Ringwood. Finally, I would like to congratulate everyone involved from Maroondah City Council for putting forward this project in such a short amount of time.