Thursday, 12 May 2022

Beaconsfield Recreation Reserve

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (17:09): (6360) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and I ask that she comes out and meets with Beaconsfield Superules, Beaconsfield Auskick and Beaconsfield Junior Football Club. Now, whilst it sounds like sport, when we are speaking to the minister for the environment it is to do with the ground and the facilities at that ground. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning came through recently and did an inspection of the lights—it was about four weeks ago—and found two of the main lights for that ground to be classified as unsafe. They passed that back to the council through an audit, and at first they closed down the entire facility, but now they have removed just those two lights. By removing the lights you can no longer have training for the Superules. It is difficult for Auskick and it is difficult for the juniors after hours, because the lights now are on only half of the ground. We have been working with Darren Hansen, who is the president of the Superules, and he has been communicating with the grounds committee as well as all the other teams down there. We need to have an answer on when we can get access back to that ground.

The Superules have run a fantastic program for the last few years to encourage and build up the number of teams they have got, ranging from over 35s up to the 50s and 60s for some of our players out there. They are an amazing group who have continued to make sure that they can keep fit and stay active. Obviously social isolation is a big issue. Mental health with men around that age is a huge concern, and by taking away the lights we are taking away the access to training that they have got during the evenings—and most of them work during the day. Auskick have come to us, because they closed the entire facility for a short period of time. They should have access again this Saturday, after working with the council so that they could get back out on the ground, but they are very keen to see a change to make sure there are new lights and better access to the ground. Also for the junior football club access in the evening, again, is important, with parents coming down after hours to train with the kids there.

If the minister can come out, we need to ask for a time frame, the cost and when we are going to see this completed so we can see people back and active in sport out in the Beaconsfield area. They are three amazing clubs. They are attached to other clubs locally as well. They cannot just change and move facilities, because we have already got our grounds full in the area with the growth corridor. Gembrook has already had enough issues with the building of their facility, so they are already using Heatherbrae down in Officer. We have not got the access for clubs to go and move to different spots to train. I would like the minister to come out as soon as possible so we can see this fixed, no matter how long it takes or where we can get that funding from, to ensure that our players can be on the ground as soon as possible. To Darren Hansen and his team: thank you for raising this with us. We are sure, we are confident, that the minister will come out and see you soon to ensure this very important issue is fixed in the Gembrook electorate.