Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Women (Senator Payne) to a question without notice asked by Senator Marielle Smith today relating to the Community Sport Infrastructure Grants Program.

I'd like to take up where Senator Marielle Smith finished off her questions, because what this government has done is an absolute scandal.

Can I talk about the South Adelaide AFL club in the seat of Kingston. It happened to have the misfortune to be in a safe Labor seat. They've got an amazing local member by the name of Amanda Rishworth, and she's turned what was a marginal seat into a safe seat. So, what was the reward for this football club? In the last couple of years, this club has won two women's premierships. They've got 45 female players with three clubs. They're the most successful AFL women's team in the South Australian football league. They applied for a grant to upgrade the facilities for their female players. They've actually got more premierships than they've got female toilets. They've got one female toilet and two premierships. They put in their application and they were the perfect example of what the Prime Minister claims—and we've just heard it from the Minister for Women—that this government was on about: increasing female participation.

This application was rejected but, in a neighbouring seat, which was a marginal seat previously held by Minister Christopher Pyne, they have a rugby team. I have to say that rugby is not a big game in South Australia, but that club got a $500,000 grant for women's change rooms. There is nothing wrong with that, except that that club has no women members. They had fallen out with their women members a couple of years earlier and they had no women members. I might also point out they haven't actually built these change rooms.