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

I rise this evening to talk about the desperate need for upgrades to sporting facilities in my electorate of La Trobe. Some are very good, such as the Beaconsfield Football Club—and Officer's is on the way—but then there are clubs like the Berwick Junior Football Club.

I recently met with Jennifer Lynn, the vice-president, and Wendy Williams, the president, of the BJFC. Berwick Junior Football Club is a large club that operates with 22 teams, and, combined with the outlet Auskick program, they have over 650 players registered at their club. Over the past two seasons, they have been building their girls' teams, and this season they fielded three small teams and have enough interest to grow to four teams next year. However, they do not have suitable grounds for their girls to train and play on. This season, the girls' team trained at Akoonah Park with no goalposts, no change rooms, low lighting and insufficient toilet facilities. They also played their Berwick home games 20 minutes away at Clyde, a recreational reserve, due to the lack of facilities. Despite the lacklustre infrastructure, the enthusiasm shared by the club's members was truly remarkable, and it's quite incredible, considering how bad the facilities actually are. I'm fighting to deliver to them the funding needed to upgrade their substandard facilities. But we need matching funding from the council and the state Labor government. I think that's only fair. The club needs support in order for them to continue to encourage and accommodate participation of girls and boys in the Berwick Junior Football Club. To improve their facilities up to the standard of surrounding clubs and allow them to grow their female teams in a friendly football atmosphere, they urgently require: the resurfacing of the Berwick Field's playing surface, including installation of an irrigation system; a new electronic scoreboard at Arch Brown Recreation Reserve; and a new electronic scoreboard at Berwick Fields.

I also rise to speak about the desperate need to upgrade ageing facilities at the Pakenham Football and Netball Club, where I met Amanda Sidebottom, the logistics lead for female football, the Pakenham club president, Darren Sidebottom, and Jeff Barclay, the club's vice-president. During a recent visit alongside budding netball players, I walked past the female players who were waiting outside the club room in torrential rain. I was taken around and shown a small gymnasium. I walked back after, I think, 15 minutes, and the girls were still standing out in the rain. I asked those who were showing me around, 'Why are they standing in the rain?' They were standing in the rain because they had to wait for the male players to finish using the change room. That is absolutely outrageous and, in a modern society, just shouldn't happen. The club's home ground was built 20 years ago to accommodate only two football teams and one A-grade netball team. With the rate of growth they have experienced in 20 years, they are experiencing issues of where to house their teams. Currently, the club has 100 netball players ranging from under-9 to A-grade open, 30 female senior footballers, with an additional 38 under-18s joining them next year, and 104 senior football players, under-17 to seniors.

We also have the Pakenham Junior Football Club, Pakenham Cricket Club and Pakenham Pumas Baseball Club, along with the Little Athletics club, that are all located at one facility. I met Gregg Clutterbuck, the vice-president of Pakenham Pumas Baseball Club, which is one of the few baseball clubs in La Trobe—actually, there aren't many of them in Victoria. The Pakenham Juniors Baseball Club also has no proper facilities, and I'll be fighting to deliver and support this hardworking baseball team. I also met the president of the Pakenham Junior Football Club, Travis Hamilton. They have over 500 young kids playing in their club. I also met with Ian Shaw from the Pakenham Junior Football Club and Phil Anning from the Pakenham Cricket Club, which share the same facilities.

The seniors club needs a major upgrade and renovations, as I said before, but the juniors team is actually even worse. They have no showers at all and pretty much no facilities. When it's bucketing down with rain, the players have nowhere to shelter. Once the training is finished, they're lining up in the rain. Again, this is totally unacceptable. This is something which we must address. We must put more federal funding into sport, especially female sport. As I and many other members have found, quite often the men's or the boys' clubs are looked after first, but, in the case of the Pakenham juniors, not even the boys are being looked after.

I'd also like to bring the Chamber's attention to the Berwick football and netball clubs of La Trobe and their needs for upgrades. They are in desperate need of numerous regeneration and improvement works. I recently visited the Berwick Football Club and, whilst there, I met with Travis Tuck; Stewart Kemperman, the senior coach; and Madi Andrews, the captain. They were there training. I also met with Peter Hughes, the vice-president. I congratulate Peter. He's done so much work with me to put forward a proposal, and they weren't due for any funding for the next 10 years. Hopefully, we can make something work. They're seeking $4 million to upgrade the footballers' section and also the netball club. They're working in partnership.

Again, I saw the same thing with their facilities when I visited; it was a rainy night and the netball players, the girls, don't have the facilities they need at all. It was incredible how upbeat they were, even though the facilities were so bad. The netballers currently have no change rooms or showers for training or game day. They only have two small public toilet cubicles or their cars for changing in and out of their playing gear. There's nowhere to have a shower or even just dry off after training or playing in the rain. There are no home-team or away-team rooms at all. Even for the netball umpires, there are no change rooms or showers; they share two small public cubicles, and the football umpires currently change in a very small brick construction—no showers, no toilets. Not only are all the facilities old and out of date; they do not cater for male and female umpires. Female umpires have to share the male change rooms, which is totally unacceptable.

The club's canteen was built over 30 years ago and hasn't been renovated since. The club's current football lighting is dull and below standard; it's really not adequate for senior football training. With two senior teams—under-19s and under-18s—and the start of their female football sides in 2019 or 2020, they need better facilities. The club president, Pete, advised that the club did spend money on the lights over the past few years to try and fix them; however, they are old and need to be replaced. The current lights are also very old technology, which is not the best when it comes to the power bill.

The good news is that last election I committed funding to the Gembrook Cockatoo Football Netball Club, and the great news is that councils are matching our $1 million commitment, so designs are underway. We also committed $500,000 to Officer Senior Football Club. They need some more funding, so I'll be fighting again to assist the Officer sporting club. Again, I think it's very important to help fund these sporting clubs, especially for female participation in sport and for juniors' participation in sport.