Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In July 2017, I met with representatives from what is now the Western United Football Club as they formed a bid team to get an A-League licence. I rise today to congratulate that team on winning that bid and securing an A-League licence for the west of Melbourne. I attended last week the Western United fan forum in a local space. I want to congratulate ‎Maurice Bisetto, Steve Horvat, Lou Sticca and the whole team that put this bid together. With him, I congratulate Wyndham City Council and, in particular, Kate Roffey for her work in preparing the bid and beating out two other Victorian bids, one from Dandenong and one from South Melbourne.

This will become a reality. For the first two seasons, this club will play in Geelong and Ballarat as it builds a club owned stadium in Tarneit. That stadium will be built next to the Regional Rail Link, a proud federal Labor initiative. On 6 December 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, in the middle of this bid process, that the Morrison government had indicated a willingness to fund the building of the Team 11 stadium if it won the bid. Today I stand here and call on the Morrison government: you were keen to support the Dandenong stadium; we need a railway station to support the Western United Football Club.