Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Under the redistribution in Victoria, I was fortunate to pick up the suburb of Pakenham. I've had several visits there, especially to sporting clubs. I note that recently I went to the Pakenham football and netball senior clubs, where Amanda Sidebottom is the logistics lead for the female football team. The Pakenham football club president, Travis Hamilton, and others took me around.

What really grabbed my attention, though, was that it was one of those nights when it was bucketing down with rain, and all the netballers were lined up outside the building. I was walking past and thought, 'Gee whiz, they're doing it pretty tough after training.' Then, after 20 minutes of taking a tour, I came back, and guess what: the netball players were still standing in the rain. When I asked, 'What's going on here?' they said simply, 'The netball players have to wait for the senior male football players to finish.' This is totally unacceptable, and I know it's happening in my electorate in the Gembrook Cockatoo Football Netball Club and other netball clubs. Female sport needs the same facilities as male sports. I congratulate the club for making this a big issue. I'm going to make sure we remedy that situation and look after both the new netball facilities and the sportsmen's rooms within the club. It needs a major makeover.