Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade and Investment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to offer my support to, and raise awareness of, an important campaign in my electorate—the Grass Ceiling campaign. The campaign has been the brainchild of the wonderfully proactive mayor of the Bayside City Council, Felicity Frederico. In Bayside, one of the two municipalities in my electorate of Goldstein, 80 per cent of the sporting infrastructure was constructed before the 1960s—an era when female sport received very little attention. As a result, 96 per cent of the pavilions within Bayside do not have adequate female change facilities.

There is a major imbalance between supply and demand for sporting facilities. The Bayside municipality has 44 ovals yet only seven netball courts. This leads to over 200 netballers having a forced bye every weekend. What message does this send to young girls who aspire to play sport? Not only does it mean that a large percentage of existing netballers cannot play weekly; it also means there is no scope for growth in female participation. While this is a major issue in my electorate, I am also aware that the situation is replicated throughout our nation.

This has to change. The playing field must be levelled. If this issue is left to conventional drip-feed funding, a whole generation of females will miss out on local sporting opportunities, as it would take at least 15 years for a transformation to occur. We know how important it is for children and teenagers to be active. Communities are responding to calls to increase youth participation in sport. It is now up to governments to act on this too, by ensuring that we have the facilities to meet the demand for quality sporting fields for everyone, irrespective of gender.

I am pleased to read that the Victorian Minister for Sport, John Eren; the Victorian shadow minister for sport, Damian Drum; and the Victorian shadow minister for women, Georgie Crozier, have all agreed that this issue is important, and they have requested the reinstatement of the meeting of sport and recreation ministers as a COAG ministerial council, and for this issue to take precedence. As the member for Goldstein, I agree with this call and would also like to see this added to the COAG Health Council as a health initiative. This issue transcends party lines as well as levels of government. It requires bipartisanship and discussion between all three levels of government. It has my full support, and I will continue to pursue this matter with parliamentary colleagues at a federal level.

Lastly, I would like to congratulate Mayor Frederico for raising awareness of this inequity which exists today. I would also like to thank the Leader newspaper and their parent company, News Corp, for campaigning for action on this issue. They have put great effort into this issue. With the support of three levels of governments, I am confident we can see positive action.