Thursday, 18 August 2022

State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Mr DIMOPOULOS:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (15:30): It is with pleasure that I rise this afternoon to speak on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and although it is a fairly simple bill designed to make things fairer and more equitable between a number of different organisations—different state assets in fact; it is managed through the State Sport Centres Trust—there are a couple of key points that I will be making, and I am sure I can do well in filling my time here. First of all I want to thank the new Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events’ office and staffer Raphael Mengem for arranging the briefing, as well as Belinda Kleverlaan and Louise Atwood from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. Belinda, being the director of state entities, has particular knowledge in this area.

The purpose of the bill that we have before us is to give the State Sport Centres Trust management rights and responsibility over the Knox Regional Sports Park, Lakeside Stadium and the Lakeside Oval Reserve. So that sounds fairly simple. On top of that it is updating a parcel of National Tennis Centre land following the widening of Hoddle Street. That is quite minor, but I will touch on that as well. There are also some slight alterations to the make-up of the State Netball and Hockey Centre Advisory Committee.

In doing so this bill makes amendments specifically to the State Sport Centres Act 1994, which will allow the trust—I will call the State Sport Centres Trust ‘the trust’—to manage and operate the Knox Regional Sports Park and land, Lakeside Stadium and the Lakeside Oval Reserve land. It also amends the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985 to reflect the new boundary of the National Tennis Centre land following the reservation of a strip of land as a road in the streamlining of the Hoddle Street project. Also included are slight alterations to the State Netball and Hockey Centre Advisory Committee. There has previously been a member of the trust on that committee; it is now being altered to include the CEO and a member of the trust. These changes are being put in place to bring them all into line, all having simple, fairer and equitable access within the trust—and it is actually tidier legislatively as well.

I just want to talk a little bit about the State Sport Centres Trust for a moment. The title of this act was changed from the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre Act 1994 to the State Sport Centres Act 1994 by section 4 of the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (Amendment) Act 1999. That was established with the primary purpose of establishing the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. In 1999 the State Netball and Hockey Centre was added to the management under the trust. The trust itself operates under the State Sport Centres (Amendment) Act 2004, and that act primarily was introduced at the time to consolidate land management arrangements around MSAC in Albert Park. We would all know and be very familiar with MSAC as it stands now, but when it was first established there were lots of different parcels of land that had different ownership arrangements, and so that consolidated them all into one. The local member at the time, who was also the Minister for Environment, John Thwaites, said:

The aim of this bill is to rationalise land management arrangements for the redeveloped site and to put in place a more efficient, streamlined land management structure. The bill will also ensure that all Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre land is permanently reserved as part of Albert Park.

The current arrangements may best be described as a patchwork of land parcels and management structures.

So we can see that already with the development of MSAC there was work that needed to be done to consolidate it so that they had better and more streamlined arrangements, and as we have added different state assets into the management of the trust, that then at times has meant the legislation has had to be altered.

The trust is a statutory authority, and its role specifically includes management, financial arrangements, operation, development and maintenance, including all of the grounds, with responsibilities over a suite of the government’s assets. These are, as I have mentioned, Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, Lakeside Stadium and the State Netball and Hockey Centre—it is very difficult to not put ‘hockey’ first because it is just known to me as the hockey centre—and now it will include the Knox facility and change the nature of the arrangements around Lakeside Stadium. Lakeside Stadium at the moment is through a committee of management, and this is altering that and putting it in line with the others. The aim, I guess, of all of this is to provide premier multisport facilities in Victoria that are state of the art.

Just with regard to the trust itself, in 2019 EY, Ernst & Young, completed an economic impact of the value of the trust and what it delivers annually. Based on 2019 activity—and I do want to mention that because it shows the significance of sport in and around Melbourne in key parts—it delivers $164.6 million to the economy, and the benefit to the sports section from the provision of the facilities is $14.8 million. The number of visits across those facilities is 2.4 million. The number of children that it supports in subsidised sports programs is 14 204, swimming lessons totalled 136 640 and they have had over 6200 group fitness classes.

The trust was impacted greatly through COVID, like many other areas, with the extended lockdowns that we had in Victoria. And if we look at what is in the last annual report signed off by the chair and the previous chief executive, it says:

The impact from COVID-19 challenges on athletes and all visitors, has become more and more prominent. Many people have held off returning to activity with every lockdown. Many athletes have considered alternative options, and events have found greater certainty relocating interstate. Significant mental wellbeing issues are being witnessed in people, and the role SSCT venues play in helping restore athlete and community wellbeing will become critical over the coming years.

We can see very much from the state’s sporting assets that the trust knows what an impact it has had on sport, with the extended lockdowns, more so than anywhere else in Australia. As we know, Melbourne was the most locked down city in the world. When you have got people leaving sport, not returning, finding alternative things to do, you have got to look at the impact on the health of our society going forward. We need people to be active. We do not just need children to be active, we need adults to be active as well. The lockdown has really not just impacted so negatively on people’s mental health but also stopped them participating in health activities, and so much more needs to be done to make sure that we drive people, young and old, back to doing physical activity. The trust itself experienced approximately a 30 per cent drop in membership numbers from a pre-COVID-19 high as a result of these changes. And in late 2020 it offered members one-month complimentary memberships, which helped it pick up, but you can see the sorts of things that needed to be done to get some changes in this area.

As I have mentioned, there are four different areas that are managed through the trust, and I am going to start with the Lakeside Stadium and the Lakeside Oval Reserve. It is important to know that with both Knox and Lakeside it is not just the stadiums and the buildings, but it is also the wider reserves around them that are the subject of the bill before us today. The trust was appointed the committee of management at the reserve on 31 August 2011. It was under the oversight of the former Liberal government. This was done because there had been a number of changes. It was bringing it in line because it is part of that Albert Park precinct, so we needed to make sure that it was under the same management structure —and I think it is important to remember that it is all of the development. Everything that happens there needs to be mindful of that Albert Park region and the sports facility and the natural environment that it has there. This bill formalises the arrangements for the management of the facility and the land. Many people would know that the stadium itself is one of our premier athletics venues and that the ground is also available for casual bookings. Schools will use it, different clubs may use it, but it also has a number of very exciting athletics events. They have got seating for about 7500.

Changing from a committee of management will have very little, if any, impact on the day-to-day operations of the user groups and the tenants, and as I have said previously, it brings Lakeside in line with the other facilities. But these changes, actually quite interestingly, are also required to resolve difficulties in leasing and licensing around the stadium due to the ambiguity in exercising powers under two acts, because we have the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 as well as the State Sport Centres Act 1994. There was a little bit of ambiguity about which minister was the lead minister in entering into some of these leasing agreements, and so this makes it a lot clearer that the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events is the decision-maker now over leases and licences in the area, not the Minister for Environment and Climate Action. That just makes a little bit more sense. You have got a number of tenants there, such as Little Athletics. There is an old South Melbourne football club, and we have the Victorian Institute of Sport, which takes up quite a bit of that land there. The facilities have been located on the site of the stadium since 1878. It is one of the oldest stadiums that we have around. Many people would know that it was home to the South Melbourne Football Club before it relocated to Sydney, but we also know that the Sydney Swans have a presence at one of the buildings there. It had been converted to a soccer facility and an athletics track. That pretty well sums up the changes around the Lakeside stadium.

I am going to now move to the Knox Regional Sports Park. This bill again formalises the arrangements for the management of the facility and the land, and I note that the maps are included as part of this bill and schedule 4 actually outlines the area that is included. When we talk about the Knox Regional Sports Park most people think that means the expanded basketball stadium, but it actually is more than that because there are soccer facilities there as well. We had to have clarified through the bill briefing exactly where the boundaries of the lands are, but it certainly does include the soccer area—or ‘football’ as Football Victoria would refer to it. The facility out there is 27 hectares; that is quite a significant parcel of land. There is a significant redevelopment happening in that area at the moment with the stadium. It is a $132 million development that includes 12 new community courts for the local basketball competition. Not only is it going to have basketball, but there will be local elite-level gymnastics and the existing group from Ferntree Gully will be relocating there. There is also the full-sized soccer pitch, five-a-side synthetic pitches and a pavilion. Also the Victorian Association of Radio Model Soaring is there now.

The State Sport Centres Trust has worked closely with Knox council here, and they needed to have done so. The council recognised that they needed extra facilities. Basketball is huge in that area, and certainly it was growing and they just could not keep up with the demand. There were existing facilities in Knox at Boronia that were past their use-by date and really needed updating. This, for council, helped solve a couple of problems. The council contributed $27 million to the development of the facilities, but they did so with the guarantee that the trust would take full operational responsibility. They knew that they did not have the expertise to manage major stadiums—that is not the core business of local government, certainly—and any costs of maintenance and upgrades in the future would have been quite prohibitive. They were worried about those, so they came to an agreement where they provided $27 million to that. Now, there are some sensitive areas outside, and the council parks and gardens staff will continue to maintain the wetlands on the site to an appropriate standard as part of that agreement. They wanted also to make sure that there was easy access for visitors, and so the Landcare specialists there will continue to care for those wetlands and the surrounding area.

I have mentioned that this is going to be quite a large redevelopment, and it will have a number of tenants there. The tenants are Basketball Victoria and Basketball Australia, and there are the men’s and women’s premier league teams. The Knox Basketball association in fact has—this is quite impressive—1069 teams which compete weekly in junior and senior domestic competitions. That is 11 000 players. That is an extraordinary number of players at that one venue. When I have looked at the plans—I have been out there a couple of times—there seems to be one entrance. The car park is way out the back and people have got to walk an enormous distance to the front to go in and then they have to walk right back to the stadium where these community courts will be. I think that possibly there could have been a little bit better design there.

Because there will be so many tenants—Football Victoria I mentioned before, and Ferntree Gully gymnastics will be relocating there—it is important from my point of view and certainly from the Liberal-Nationals point of view that they be given a voice so that they are heard, so they have access to those in the trust, whether that is a chair or the trust members. To make sure that they have a voice, under the standing orders I wish to advise the house of amendments to this bill and request that they now be circulated.

Opposition amendments circulated by Ms McLEISH under standing orders.

Ms McLEISH: The reason that I am circulating amendments is to provide through the legislation the opportunity for the user groups to be heard. I have not created anything that is exceptional or anything that is not already in the current act. I have based these amendments on section 26D of the current act, which is about the State Netball and Hockey Centre Advisory Committee, which already exists. That is being amended as part of this bill. Through the development—they were having a major construction phase—and through that phase they established their advisory committee. It included not just the people from the trust and the netball and hockey centre but also the zoological gardens, because that is in that precinct as well, and the Melbourne City Council. So they have an advisory committee, and that advisory committee is continuing now that the work at the netball and hockey centre has been completed.

I thought it only reasonable that a similar advisory committee be put in place through legislation to make sure that the community groups, the user groups and the tenants at Knox were heard—that they could have access to the trust and to the CEO. CEOs come and go and trust members come and go, and there are different capabilities and actions of those leaders. Whilst one CEO or trust member might be particularly active in engaging, that does not mean the next one will be. I think it is important: if we have this in legislation, then that would bind the trust to talk to them—not just during the construction phase. That construction phase is well and truly underway at the moment, and it will continue, and for those different user groups to be given a voice in line with how the netball and hockey centre user groups were established I think is actually a good idea. I look forward to the minister supporting these, because they are good, commonsense amendments. They will make sure that the user groups are well represented.

One of the concerns that could be held, with the local council not being the main operator anymore and the user groups not having that strong connection in the first instance, is what happens down the track? You see this a lot as a member of Parliament, where something is a good idea now, but in 10 or 15 years when things have moved on, you start to realise ‘Hey, this hasn’t been thought out in the longer term’. It is good in the shorter term. Some of the clubs may think, ‘Will soccer get muscled out by tennis? Will netball move in and take over a little bit of basketball?’—things like this. So there can be legitimate concerns from groups that that may happen. I would expect in the first instance, given the number of basketball courts, that community basketball should be fairly safe, but soccer and gymnastics may not be as safe. They are unsure. Clubs will be unsure if it will be viable for them to lease the regional sports park due to fee payments, lower club numbers post COVID, pandemic lockdowns or any restrictions. Typically clubs do get discounted rates with the newer facilities. I know that to be the case for tenants at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. The tenants at the hockey and netball centre certainly do get discounted rates. But you need to be very mindful that when you have community sport based at these premier facilities you cannot price them out—netball, for example, not being able to continue or basketball not being able to continue, at that grassroots level, to pay the rates—because there are huge levels of financial investment into them. For governments it is one of those things that you need to provide. You cannot get all your money back, but you need to make sure those user groups are definitely able to be catered for in the long term.

One of the other reasons that I think it is good to have the amendments adopted is that there is no direct position for anybody from the outer east, who represents that area, being included on the trust. That may or may not happen with different mixes of people that you get, but there is no specific inclusion. If you have this legislation, the amendments that I put forward can really help in these situations.

I am going to move on to the netball and hockey centre at Royal Park. The legislation, as I have mentioned already, allows for a consultative committee, but this bill makes a relatively minor amendment. At the moment section 26D of the act says, in subsection (2)(a), with regard to membership:

a person nominated by the Trust, being either a member of the Trust or the chief executive officer of the Trust …

That is being amended to include the chief executive officer of the trust on the State Netball and Hockey Centre Advisory Committee. The amendments that I have put forward for Knox reflect that same change. So as the netball and hockey one is being modernised, I would have those same changes for Knox.

I do want to just talk briefly about the netball and hockey centre. It has been around for a little while now. I played my very first game on a synthetic pitch at Royal Park in August 1982. That is almost 40 years to the day, actually. It is really quite scary to look at it like that. The actual netball and hockey centre opened in 2001, although we had the first synthetic pitch. It was a big deal. It was a very big deal to have a synthetic pitch. We were only ever rostered onto that once or twice a season, so it was a very big deal to go there. Now that is all we play on.

There is the recent completion of a very large development worth $64.6 million. That has got bells and whistles. I would almost say it is gold plated, with some of the things that have been included. What has been very long awaited is the new indoor hockey stadium. I do hope it does not get hijacked by other sports. When I visited there recently the centre were telling me, ‘Oh, look, and the AFL are using it’. All I could think of was bigger sports muscling in on hockey and netball. The hockey and netball associations drove that redevelopment, and they should remain as the key tenants with priority over bookings.

The redevelopment has seen the addition of six new indoor netball courts—a total of 11. There are hot and cold recovery pools. That is fairly cool. There is a creche for parents playing at the centre; it will be interesting to see how that goes. Previously, usually, hockey players have had kids down on the sides. People have breastfed on the sidelines; hockey players are fairly tough people. There is a high-performance strength and conditioning gym as well. In one of the media releases Development Victoria boasted that this was going to offer great pathways. It is great to have facilities, but the facilities do not make the pathways into sport. It takes a lot more than that. You need good systems and processes at grassroots and club level to help facilitate and bring kids through pathways to get them into semi-elite and elite sport.

The expanded centre will also allow for more use for volleyball, basketball, futsal, badminton and table tennis. So it is quite a significant addition in square meterage. But it also has half a million visitors a year, and I am a regular visitor. While I am talking on hockey, I do want to congratulate Amy Lawton and Nathan Ephraums from the Southern United Hockey Club, who both competed at the Commonwealth Games. Nathan was part of the gold medal winning team and scored a couple of goals and a couple of assists. It was his first go at this level, and he absolutely did the club very proud. Amy, as Olympian, did the club exceptionally proud as well.

Now I am just going to move to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, which opened for business in 1997. That was at a cost then of $65 million, which was funded by the state and the City of Port Phillip. The Honourable Tom Reynolds, whom we spoke of recently in this place following his death, proposed the establishment of MSAC in 1984 and the trust to operate the centre, because he wanted a top-class sporting facility available to the public incorporating different sports. That replaced the State Swimming Centre that was in Batman Avenue, and it helped develop Albert Park as a sporting precinct. As we know, there are stadiums there that cater for basketball, squash, badminton, volleyball and table tennis, and they have quite a bit of seating. There are wonderful 50-metre indoor and outdoor competition pools. The outdoor competition pool is one of the best, I would say. And they have diving boards and a lap pool. The space is very tight at the State Netball and Hockey Centre with regard to the tenants, and I visited the diving club that is there. They have their facilities set up in the middle of the grandstand, their dry practice facilities. It is not always in water; the divers practice their flips and things in the dry area. They have really struggled to get the space that they need to do this. They have been working and sometimes hitting their heads against a brick wall with the trust trying to get extra space at MSAC. Now talks are happening again. They could be supported better, in my opinion. They have had to provide a lot of their own equipment, mats and things like that themselves.

Finally, I want to touch on the sliver of land associated with the widening of Olympic Boulevard, which will see a slight increase in the footprint for the Department of Transport. This relates to the amendment to the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985 to reflect the new boundary of the National Tennis Centre land following the reservation of that strip of land as a road in the Streamlining Hoddle Street project. It is a very small sliver of land. People will know it. It has these very unusual turning lanes. If you are trying to turn from Punt Road into Olympic Boulevard from various parts of Richmond, you do really odd things, and it is probably the only place in the world that has such an unusual set of roads and traffic signals. That bit of land was needed, and so this just tidies up and updates that. There are clearly no problems with that. That is something that really needs to be done.

Despite my moving the amendments—I probably should have mentioned this earlier—the opposition are certainly not opposing this bill, because this bill does make the arrangements simpler and clearer for those four assets that are under the State Sport Centres Act. There are a couple of things that I will mention. The bill talks about the ability to enter into leases and agreements, and there will also be the ability to consolidate the bank accounts of those different facilities so that they can be one account with different reporting mechanisms through it. I do hope that the minister will seriously look at the amendments that I have drafted. I am more than willing to engage with the minister and explain these commonsense amendments that we have put forward, because I want to make sure that the user groups at the Knox Regional Sports Park have the same opportunities to liaise and meet with the trust, the CEO and members of the trust as they do at the State Netball and Hockey Centre.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (16:00): It is with great pleasure that I join the debate on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. If there is anything worth happening in sport, it is happening in Victoria. Victoria is the sports, culture and entertainment capital of Australia, and indeed in many respects we are a world leader. Just last night the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events and I and the new Minister for Sport in the Albanese government joined a wonderful group of people for the launch of the seventh AFLW season. What really grabbed me was that the AFL is now the largest employer of professional female athletes in Australia—540 of them. The CEO, Gillon McLachlan, said that the latest enterprise bargaining agreement arrived at a 94 per cent pay increase for those women in their seventh season, and I just could not be happier. The AFLW epitomises everything that is so great about sport in our state.

Melbourne is the only city in the world with both a tennis grand slam and a motor grand prix. Just last month Manchester United, with 70 million global fans and 150 000 people on their members waiting list, played two exhibition games at the MCG. I was pleased to attend that match, even though I am a Liverpool fan. I note the recent media coverage that talked about the great economic generator that visits like that are. It is just wonderful that as a state government we invest in these sorts of major events and significant sporting events.

The Significant Sporting Events program has just clocked over its 500th competition, with more than 227 of those staged in regional Victoria, boosting local jobs and economies and showcasing our regions. Whenever those on the other side of this chamber say that we are a city-centric government, we are anything but that, particularly with our successful bid for the Commonwealth Games in just a bit over 3½ years in the great regional cities of Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and in the Gippsland area, and also Shepparton is going to benefit. We want to ensure that every child in regional Victoria has some sort of participation in this great event, whether it is the cultural programs, whether it is the legacy or whether it is their grounds being involved as training venues and them getting to meet elite athletes staying in their communities as well.

This bill is helping to deliver and maintain the State Basketball Centre located at Knox Regional Sports Park. I note the member for Bayswater is in the chamber. I believe he is going to speak after me. He has worn out the carpet going to the current minister for sport and his predecessor—and me as the Parliamentary Secretary for Sport—and lobbying for how important this is for his region and the whole eastern region. It replicates the new Knox Regional Sports Park. It replicates the best elements that we have seen with the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) model, which allows for more efficient management of significant sport infrastructure that is utilised by both the community and professional athletes.

The member for Eildon, the opposition spokesperson, also mentioned the State Netball and Hockey Centre. She said she has played there. I have played netball there, but I have seen many hockey matches there, especially the magnificent Greensborough Hockey Club. I will mention again the Greensborough Hockey Club, where I am the number one ticketholder. They have had numerous successes there in premier women’s and premier men’s and supplied goodness knows how many players to the Australian team. They are at one of the most utilised facilities in the Shire of Nillumbik, the home of the Greensborough Hockey Club, but I have got to see them at the State Netball and Hockey Centre and also seen the Vixens’ Kate Moloney, a product of my electorate in Diamond Creek—and wasn’t it great to see our Diamonds win the commonwealth gold.

The member for Eildon proposed a series of amendments to the bill, and I signal on behalf of the government that we will not be accepting those amendments at this point in time. Certainly we are not opposed at all to there being advisory committees to these trusts, but there really is no need to have them established in legislation. I think it is quite ironic that supposedly the party of small business and less regulation is proposing more, and particularly we want to have a mix of professional and community sport associations and teams participating at the Knox Regional Sports Park. Having a more flexible arrangement of advisory committees that is not enshrined in legislation and is not reliant on ministerial appointment, and all that is actually going to ensure better access for those minority sports in particular and other sports that might come on board in the future. So it is something that we feel is not necessary and has not come up through the consultation. Certainly when the coalition in government established the model, the MSAC model, they did not enshrine this. When they did establish the State Sports Trust, they did not establish a legislative demand for an advisory committee for MSAC, and certainly with our consultation we have seen that that is also not necessary.

We do not know at this stage what the minor parties are doing in relation to this bill, but I do encourage the Greens and in particular the inner-city council Greens to be more supportive of both professional sport and community sport. We see this time and time again, and only just in the last week we have seen the City of Port Phillip break the hearts of women soccer players and particularly the Port Melbourne Sharks, who I have been working with for over a year now, advising them about how their facilities might fit for it to be a training venue and advising them about our government’s pathways with funding programs that unfortunately the City of Port Phillip has chosen not to access. I think that is an absolute crying shame and that council really needs to take a good hard look at itself.

I think we have seen as well the City of Yarra—was it last year?—wanting to have huge increases for community sport. I know the member for Narre Warren North is a massive Fitzroy and Brisbane fan, but what is located at the old Brunswick Street oval is the Edinburgh Cricket Club, which is based there. It was named Cricket Australia’s community club of the year due to its community engagement, and the City of Yarra’s policies, because they wanted to favour emerging sports like world frisbee and other widely played sports, were going to shaft that club and others; the fee hikes were just enormous. We want our kids and our adults to be fit and playing sport, and there is nothing wrong with organised sport—and the Greens need to learn that. Their proposed increases would have meant a 300 per cent increase for the Fitzroy Football Club, and the Edinburgh Cricket Club’s fees were going to go from $31 000 to $100 000. Then of course in my friend the member for Northcote’s electorate there is the reign of terror that has been run over community golfers with the hoo-ha over the Northcote golf course. You know, rewilding—seriously! I mean, the biodiversity—even the local Wurundjeri are really proud of the biodiversity that is around that golf club. That is what community golfers do: they are members of the community, and they look after that place. And what that would have done is take that away from young people but also older women, who are often silent about their access to sport. They are more likely to walk, to cycle, and to play golf and bowls. So the Greens need to do better. We are proud of our record on community sport and on professional sport in this state. I look forward to continuing to work with this great new minister, and I commend this bill to the house.

Mr WELLS (Rowville) (16:10): I join my colleagues to speak on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. The bill transfers the management of Knox Regional Sports Park in Wantirna South, which is in the new part of my electorate, home of the State Basketball Centre, to the State Sport Centres Trust. The park is home to Knox Basketball, Knox Regional Football Centre—soccer—and Knox Gymnastics Club and will be managed by the trust alongside the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Parkville, Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and Lakeside Stadium.

Mr Battin interjected.

Mr WELLS: And the member for Gembrook has reminded me that Lakeside Stadium was where I actually played my first reserves match for Footscray against South Melbourne in the old days. Do you remember South Melbourne?

Mr Wakeling: Did you get a footy card?

Mr WELLS: No, I did not quite make it to get a footy card, but thanks very much for reminding me, member for Ferntree Gully.

Members interjecting.

Mr WELLS: That is right, it would be worth a fortune.

It is great to see that the government acknowledges Knox is the home of basketball in Melbourne.

A member interjected.

Mr WELLS: There were football cards in my day. Thank you.

The original state sport centre opened in 2012 under the Liberal-Nationals in conjunction with Knox council, and that was a great day, member for Ferntree Gully, when we were there in 2012 to open that new facility. Knox council has invested a further $27 million in the latest expansion of the basketball facility. Knox Basketball, can you believe it, is one of the biggest basketball organisations and basketball leagues in the country, with more than 1000 teams. It is just incredible. In addition to that you have got the Melbourne Boomers, the Women’s NBL and the South East Melbourne Phoenix teams based at Knox along with the headquarters of Basketball Victoria and Basketball Australia, who manage our national teams, the Opals and the Boomers.

There are many advantages to handing the Knox Regional Sports Park over to the management of the State Sport Centres Trust. As well as the trust’s experience managing world-class sports facilities and major events, Knox council has acknowledged that the ongoing maintenance cost to their budget was a major factor in getting agreement for the council to hand over to make that transfer. Local clubs in future will have their leases of courts, ovals and pitches managed by the trust, and the bill streamlines the financial arrangements for the facilities under that trust management. I am pleased, having walked around the facility with the member for Ferntree Gully, that the bill will retain a 25-hectare site as Crown land, which reflects its ongoing value to the Knox community. Although the sport centres legislation will take precedence for the site’s management, Knox council will maintain the wetlands around Blind Creek because of the specific expertise that council has in managing the environment.

But the huge downside in the bill is that there is no formal channel for the Knox community’s interest to be represented on the board of the sport centres trust, like the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre community reference panel or the netball hockey advisory committee. We think that this is grossly, grossly unfair that you are going to take over a facility and completely cut out the local community. Whether it be the basketball, soccer or gymnastics, to cut them out after the council has put in a further $27 million—something is not right. It is one of the points that, again, the member for Ferntree Gully, the Shadow Minister for Sport and I are pushing very strongly.

We very, very strongly support the amendment that is being put forward by the member for Eildon. We are hoping that the government will accept this amendment. There is nothing political in this whatsoever—nothing political. We think it is a fair and reasonable amendment. We just want to follow the precedent that has already been set that local communities and other groups can be part of an advisory board that advises the trust. So it is nothing political. It is about a commonsense approach. We think that by accepting this amendment at least the government will acknowledge the gift of the asset by the Knox council and then, in addition to the asset, the further $27 million from the Knox ratepayers. I hope the member for Bayswater acknowledges that the amendment that has been put forward is fair and reasonable and speaks to the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events to make sure that this actually happens.

Local sports clubs like Knox Basketball and the gymnastics and soccer clubs need a transparent process for the transition of the new leasing arrangements. The sports clubs negotiating new leases or managing problems with their facilities previously could speak with the council management and elected councillors, but there is no mention in this bill of any requirement by the trust or the minister of the day to give local Knox clubs preferential access to future lease negotiations. We hear all the time that ‘It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be looking after your interests’, but as local members of Parliament we want something more concrete, and we believe that having an advisory body in as part of this legislation would make more sense.

The long-term protection in the bill of the wider community interests is also crucial. In contrast with the trusts of other facilities in the inner city, Wantirna South is a residential suburb, so there is a need to manage the inevitable traffic disruption and impacts on visitors to Knox Park, which are expected to double once the new site is opened—from 800 000 visitors currently to 2 million a year—and protections must be included in the bill for Knox residents to have a genuine say in the decisions that will affect our area. So I call on the state government to acknowledge the gift from the Knox community and the ratepayers and to ensure that the amendment is accepted.

Can I just say that we have a vested interest in this. As parents of kids that have played basketball from when they were little kids, of 6 years of age—playing in the under-8s and going right through, playing basketball until they were 19 and 20—we have a long-term interest and we have a vested interest in this. Some parents are coaches—in my case it was pointed out by my second son that I was not a very good one—and it is important to have parent participation. I think that is one of the reasons why Knox Basketball is so successful—all the parents and grandparents get involved, whether it means by scoring, cleaning up or coaching. It is a very well run organisation. Can I thank Cr Lisa Cooper for all the hard work and support that she has put into Knox Basketball. She does an absolutely amazing job, and she has represented her community and Knox council very, very well.

On that point I just ask that the government seriously considers the amendment that is being put forward. As I said, there is nothing political about it. We just want it done so the people of Knox, the sporting clubs of Knox, are going to be well represented.

Mr TAYLOR (Bayswater) (16:18): It is a great privilege that I rise to speak on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. Of course the member for Rowville there—clutching that box like Winston Churchill many, many moons ago up the top there—was talking about the clubs and organisations being well represented. Well, I am very proud that the Andrews Labor government are spending $105 million to create the home of basketball in Australia to make sure that organisations, community groups and people not just in Knox but right across the eastern suburbs will indeed be very well represented. I am not seeing the member for Rowville at the State Basketball Centre. I would love to see him. We should watch a basketball game together, mate. We will make a time. But they will indeed be very well represented.

I am very proud that the state Labor government are making sure we create the home of basketball in Australia. I will get to some of the detail a little bit later about what we are doing at the State Basketball Centre. The member for Rowville also went on to say how council put in a further $27 million. Well, no; they started with $25 million and they added a further $2 million, just like the state government also provided extra funding to make sure we could deliver this project in its entirety, to make sure that eastern suburbs families, parents, locals, kids who want to dream big—12 new community courts, elite facilities, a home for Basketball Victoria, a home for Basketball Australia, a home for Knox Basketball—can have exactly that. Only this government backs in sport, backs open space precincts and gets the job done. So whilst others may like to visit these facilities, we will get on and build them.

It is actually worth mentioning as well that there is the amendment that has been put forward. But it does not stop of course an advisory committee outside of legislation, so sporting community groups have more flexibility generally to change preferred nominees as committees change members and leaders frequently. So I am sure it will put the minds of our community groups at ease to understand that they are indeed going to be well represented and have a very strong voice.

The bill will amend the State Sport Centres Act 1994—

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mr TAYLOR: Ah, the marginal seats director—I love it.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Can we stop the interjecting? The member has the call.

Mr TAYLOR: Well, if the member for Warrandyte would like to spend more time in his seat and less time getting kicked out of Parliament, I am sure that would serve his community very, very well. And whilst they can chide and have a crack all they like, they are just disappointed they are not over here, because they cannot win the support of the people to actually get the job done—because that is what we are doing each and every single day. I am not worried about the nonsense you are going on about, I am worried about getting things done. I am actually worried about making sure this legislation passes so that we can deliver a state-of-the-art home of basketball in my community of Knox. Like I said, whilst others visit, we will get the job done and deliver the home of basketball.

We know that this bill will amend the State Sport Centres Act 1994 to extend and improve the management arrangements under which the State Sport Centres Trust operates. It will also amend the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985 to excise a parcel of National Tennis Centre land, following the reservation of that land for use as a road during the widening of Hoddle Street, and make any necessary consequential amendments to the other act.

I did speak very briefly there about my time on Knox City Council, where I was very pleased to put forward as part of that team and to support the $25 million initial investment by Knox City Council and then to see the state government make an election commitment of $83 million, a significant investment. We now know there is a total of $132 million to get the job done. In fact I have spoken in Parliament about these amazing facilities time and time and time again. I have not heard others speaking about this project. I have not heard others talking about the importance of basketball in this place for some time, but I have been raising this again and again and again, as recently as a couple of weeks back in fact. Importantly, I know it might sound like a bit of a broken record in here, I am very, very, very proud of what we are building. As I have said, it is the home of basketball. Construction is very much underway on the expansion of the State Basketball Centre at Wantirna South, and we are not far from it being a reality.

Of course we know that work has very well started, with $132 million. It is a landmark redevelopment of the State Basketball Centre, which will take the game in Victoria to a whole new level for elite and community players in basketball and gymnastics. The redevelopment will deliver 12 new indoor courts for local competitions and statewide championships, taking the total number of indoor courts to 18. It will deliver high-performance facilities for the WNBL Deakin Melbourne Boomers and NBL South East Melbourne Phoenix. It will deliver an administrative base for the Boomers and Phoenix along with Basketball Australia, Basketball Victoria and Knox Basketball, and it will deliver a regional state-of-the-art gymnastics facility, a new cafe and a stunning town square.

Anyone in here who has not seen the artist concepts should give them a look, because it is going to be an absolute pearler. This is something to indeed be proud of, whether it is sport infrastructure or otherwise. It is going to be an absolute gem in the outer east. We know once completed, in 2023, the centre will host up to 2 million visitors a year, up from about 800 000 visitors already. Importantly this will support more than 500 jobs in construction and more than 100 ongoing roles once it is completed. It will mean better facilities for locals and much more capacity for basketball and gymnastics to grow into the future. So this is absolutely game-changing infrastructure that only a Labor government would ever actually deliver. We know that is the case because we are the ones that are getting on with it.

I am very proud that it is not just basketball that we are delivering in our local community; we have delivered $500 000 for the Eastern Raptors Rugby League Club, a brand new state-of-the-art pavilion to make sure that women have a place to get changed and get ready for the game, because Rugby League is important. I also learned the hard way to make sure you say ‘league’ at the end of ‘rugby’, because you are not very popular if you do not say ‘league’ at the end of ‘rugby’ when it is Rugby League in fact. We are also delivering $2.5 million to deliver the JW Manson pavilion in partnership with Maroondah City Council. St Andrews Cricket Club—one of the biggest cricket clubs in the outer east with a fantastic crew—Aquinas football club and Ringwood City Soccer Club are going to take part in that project. Construction has already started on the modular pavilion, which is happening off site right now as we speak, and we will start to see construction on site in Wantirna in around October or November.

For those of you who follow my Facebook page, I do not like cricket, I love it. That was a little pun there on the old song. But anyway, we are upgrading five cricket nets across the Knox community. We are upgrading Dobson Park, we are upgrading Guy Turner Reserve, we are upgrading Bayswater oval and we are upgrading Miller Park. Cricket is one of my favourite sports, having played when I was younger, and of course we know upgrading cricket nets gives everyone greater opportunities. It means you can train more often, and it gives, obviously, cricketers across our part of the world the facilities they need and deserve. We are also getting on and delivering a pavilion at Bayswater Junior Football Club. There will be a new modular pavilion there as well, with a bit of an upgrade to the existing pavilion, so that is getting delivered. Milpera Reserve have already had lights delivered.

I was very happy to announce recently that we are delivering lights at Boronia Bowls Club to make sure that they can play more bowls more often, which is incredibly important, and that went down an absolute treat with the members and the local community down there, and not just the members down there. Indeed when I say ‘the local community’ I mean that well and truly, because they have absolutely taken to barefoot bowls and social bowls, with many of the community now connecting even more than what they ever have at Boronia bowls, so I congratulate them on their social programs. I am very proud that only a state Labor government is getting on with the job and making sure that our local bowlers are getting a fair crack as well.

We have also got new facilities happening down at the Basin football and cricket club. I am working very closely with Alex Winters, the president of the football club down there—an absolute cracking bloke. He is doing a fantastic job, and I am very proud to have announced $170 000 recently. There is $5 million for the Knox regional netball facility. I tell you, we are getting on with it. This is going to create two new indoor courts—resurfaced. It is creating a whole bunch of extra car parks so families can get in and out a lot easier. We have also delivered the Guy Turner Reserve lights as well.

Excitingly, when we talk about local sport and we talk about open space we are also creating the green heart of Knox. This is unlocking nearly 17 MCGs of open space. It is going to unlock and bring to the surface nearly 1.7 kilometres of new waterways that have been stuck underground in pipes for many, many years. It is only the Andrews Labor government that delivers open space for our sport and recreation. We are delivering the new home of basketball in Knox. So while others can interject and harass and harangue as much as they like, this place is for talking about issues and talking about delivering for community, not for the nonsense they were going on about. I am proud to be part of this government and proud to be supporting sport in Knox, because only a Labor government does exactly that. I am looking forward to making sure that the State Basketball Centre gets delivered and supports our community for years to come.

Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) (16:28): I am very pleased to rise to contribute to this debate on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. Let me make it very clear: the principal change in this legislation is the transfer of ownership of the Knox Regional Sports Park from Knox City Council to the government’s State Sport Centres Trust. As a consequence of these changes of management, the Knox community—which incorporates 10 000 players from across the City of Knox, Knox Gymnastics Club and Football Federation Victoria—will not have any guaranteed representation and will not have a guaranteed say in the future use, management and operation of this site.

The opposition came up with a very reasonable and sensible alternative to overcome this problem, which was to create an advisory committee that is no different from advisory committees that already operate under the act for other sports precincts. The advisory committee would incorporate a member of the trust, a nominated member of Knox City Council and a minimum of five persons nominated by sports clubs and community groups that use the facility, and the CEO of the trust would be a member of the advisory committee and the chair would comprise a member of the committee.

It is a sensible, reasonable solution that the member for Rowville, I and the Shadow Minister for Sport in consultation with the local community see as being a reasonable step to ensure that locals who use this facility, that the council who have put $27 million of ratepayers money into this facility, have a guaranteed voice. We understand that the trust will manage this site, but there is no guaranteed voice of locals. This reasonable step, we now understand, the member for Bayswater, the minister and the government will not support. It is shameful. There is nothing political about these changes. These are concerns that I had with this proposal back in 2019 when I raised these questions with the then sports minister, the member for Keysborough, in a question on notice. I raised the issue that if a government trust is going to manage the site, how will members be appointed, and will there be representation from the Knox community appointed to the trust? We now know that there is no representation from the Knox community on the trust. In fact there is no guarantee that anyone from the region will be a member of the trust. So there is no voice.

Well, let us make it very clear. The government had the chance today to tell the Knox community that they would listen to the concerns of Knox residents, support this amendment, get on with it and ensure there was local representation. Let me make it very clear. The member for Rowville, I, the shadow minister and the opposition will be pushing ahead with this amendment in the upper house, and more importantly, if it is not supported in the upper house, we will introduce these amendments in government. We will be strongly telling the 10 000 members of the Knox Basketball Association and other users of this site that an incoming Liberal-National government will ensure there is a clear voice for Knox residents in regard to the operation of this site.

The history of this site dates back more than 10 years. Twenty years ago when Knox Basketball were looking for increased facilities because of the fact they could not extend the Boronia facilities—because the council at the time would not support it—council was looking at a range of different alternatives, and eventually the current site at Wantirna South was identified. The only way that council could get governments at state and federal level to invest in the project was if they could convince the state and national basketball associations to come on board and to make it a state centre. That is the reason why the then state government and the then federal government, with the assistance of the then member Chris Pearce, were able to get the funding to make it the home of basketball in Victoria and Australia. In fact it was a bipartisan approach. All members of Parliament of all political parties worked together at the time to ensure that we got that deal done. In fact I remember the member for Rowville and I working with the then Minister for Sport, Recreation and Youth Affairs, the member for Monbulk, to ensure that this project actually was delivered.

It has been a history of bipartisanship that has got this project delivered, and I would have thought that this advisory committee was a sensible solution to overcome the fears of Knox residents. I do not understand why the government would not pick up these amendments. I cannot believe that these amendments were not picked up by the government. I cannot understand why the member for Bayswater and why other speakers—and there was the member for Yan Yean—criticised these as nonsense. These are not nonsense. This is about guaranteeing a local community have their voice heard. I can be no plainer. The guarantee that we are providing today to the Knox community is that if we are unable to get this amendment passed in the upper house, an incoming Liberal-National government will give a very clear commitment: we will introduce these changes.

The member for Bayswater had a perfect opportunity to stand in this place and acknowledge that this important project being transferred to state management, away from local management, could have been handled in a way to provide the certainty that so many local users have raised with me. I want to pay tribute to Grant Harrison and the team at Knox Basketball, a fantastic organisation. I want to pay tribute to the many clubs, the parents and the volunteers who use this facility. But we do know that there are professional bodies that use the facility as well, the professional basketball clubs. There is no guarantee provided by the government that they will not potentially limit the use by the Knox community of this facility. I am not saying the government has the intention of doing that, but there is nothing in this legislation that ensures that anyone in the Knox community has a voice.

We are not asking the Knox community to be represented on the trust. We accept the fact the minister appoints the trust. We accept that. But there is no vehicle, there is no mechanism, to ensure that locals can at least express their view. I think I heard before that, ‘Well, informally people can put their commentary to the trust’. Well, that is fantastic, but that does not guarantee anything. There is no formal mechanism. That relies on the goodwill of a CEO. That relies on the goodwill of a chair. I am not besmirching any person who is currently in those positions, but you do not in these circumstances need to be relying on goodwill.

We have a perfect opportunity in legislation, which is what we are dealing with today in setting up this new structure for the Knox community, to ensure there is adequate protection for the local community who use this facility, who rely on this facility, to have their voices heard. I do not want to face a situation where I have clubs saying to me, ‘We are now being forced to go and play at Dandenong, Waverley or Kilsyth because of the costs’, or that they were unable to get game time due to other activities at the centre. My community has paid $27 million of ratepayers money into this facility.

Now, I know in good faith people have given undertakings there will be no changes, but we know goodwill does not protect long-term interests. We know that agreements made by certain individuals do not last the test of time. The only way you overcome it is with this amendment to guarantee the voice of Knox residents. I want to be very clear. We will ensure that this is pushed in the upper house, and if it fails, we will implement these reforms in government.

Mr EREN (Lara) (16:38): Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity, because I think it is the first time I have spoken since you have been sitting in that chair and have been elevated to this very honourable role of Deputy Speaker, to congratulate you on that elevation. Well done.

I am delighted as the member for Lara. Obviously within my realm we have Kardinia Park. Kardinia Park is a wonderful asset that we have invested heavily in as a state government. I am also delighted to be speaking on this particular bill as the former Minister for Tourism and Major Events and former Minister for Sport. Sport is a big deal. It is worth roughly $9 billion. Sport and recreation is worth about $9.5 billion to our broader economy. When you consider that there are about 9500 facilities across the state, about 16 000 sporting organisations that are registered and importantly some 600 000 volunteers that make these clubs tick from day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year, I say thank you on behalf of government, because without those volunteers none of the sporting achievements that we have attained or titles that we have attained would be possible. We are proud to say that we are the sporting capital. We are the sporting capital of the nation. Indeed some would argue that we are the sporting capital of the world.

Along with that, we are the major events capital as well in terms of both sport and recreation but also obviously in terms of culture and art. We are proud of all of those things. We understand the importance and the value of those event areas: they bring lots of economic dollars to our state and create lots of jobs. When you look right around the state almost every single area has received literally millions and millions of dollars to improve not only local facilities but indeed some of the elite facilities—they have been invested in to ensure that we have the best events going forward. From memory, I think since 2014 we have invested some $1.5 billion in the last two terms into sport and recreation in the state. Now, that is a record amount. No-one in the history of this state has ever invested that amount of money before. We understand on this side of the house, as a government, the importance of sport and recreation not only in terms of keeping people fit, healthy and happy but also in terms of the broader economy.

Look right around the state. As I have indicated, Kardinia Park is the MCG of regional Australia and the only regional AFL club in the nation. We know the value of it because the last stage of it is being developed at the moment, and it will be developed by 1 May, I am reliably informed. So we will go full circle on that ground to have the five stages completed. It will mean that 40 000 people will be able to go to the events that are held there. Forty thousand is a key number, because I know as a former minister for events, they have to be profitable. Under 40 000 capacity means that less profits are made available, and obviously then promoters do not like to have events at those things because they are not as profitable.

Look at the State Sport Centres Trust, the Melbourne and Olympic parks precinct and the investments we have made in Royal Park down there with the State Netball and Hockey Centre—and a big shout-out to Rosie King, the CEO of Netball Victoria. I recall vividly when I made the phone call to Rosie about their successful attempts to get funding from our government, some $64 million to refurbish that wonderful centre. I have recently been there, a few months ago. It is absolutely wonderful. We are leading the way. No-one has done sport and recreation like we have.

I hear some of the comments being made by the opposition. I know they have got to pick on something; they have got to find a reason to dispute what we have got before the house today. I can tell them we decided to invest literally hundreds of millions of dollars into sport and recreation. At Kardinia Park there is the $144 million that we announced for stage 5. One of the requests was that we would make that a trust and take it out of the control of council. That is an accounting sort of thing, where for state governments it is their asset. They are putting money into their own asset which is not recurrent. So there are certain accounting treatments that occur when you actually take ownership of such a facility. It is important that we have control over what goes on in that precinct because of major events—not just football, but soccer and cricket and concerts, as we have seen in the last few months. We have had lots of events down there. It is important. I pick up on some of those things that the opposition have said in relation to wanting some amendments made to this legislation that we have got before the house. I vividly remember at the time the Knox situation, when the funding for the basketball centre was being discussed. There were obviously a lot of discussions in relation to taking ownership of that because of the $134 million that is being invested. It is like at Kardinia Park, taking ownership of that, where the state actually controls it for varying reasons—again I say the accounting treatment that goes along with funding these things.

I just point out that section 6 of the State Sport Centres Act 1994 allows the minister to set up committees. I have been reliably informed that it is the preferable option to offer the advisory committee outside of the legislation so sport and community groups have the flexibility generally required to change preferred nominees, as committees change members and leaders frequently.

The state government has committed $105 million or thereabouts to make Knox the home of basketball in Victoria, and in addition $4.4 million will be made available via the trust to make sure that community clubs can access this elite facility. By the way, Knox City Council actually requested this asset transfer to the state. They did not request any advisory committee as part of the agreement and the transfer. I just wanted to put that on the record. We consult widely in relation to investments that we make, particularly very important investments like this. Basketball is huge, and that is why we invest not only in the elite end of it but also in terms of the grassroots end of it as well. We do both; we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

We know the importance of sport and recreation—$9.5 billion to our economy. We understand the needs of communities, especially as COVID was hard hitting. We have got to get people back to being fit, healthy and happy, and one of the things, I am proud to say, is as a government we are investing heavily into making sure that people can actually access sport and recreation. I have a saying: what if the cure for cancer was in the mind of a child that could not afford proper education—what if? I also say: what if there was an elite star out there like Lionel Messi or Jeremy Cameron or any of the other elite athletes that we have? What if there is a superstar out there that cannot access sport? What if they cannot afford to play sport? That is why it is so important to make sure that people can access sport, and that is why as a government we are investing heavily in making sure that people can actually play sport, with vouchers now for kids or people that want to play sport that cannot afford sport. We know on this side of the house the importance of sport and recreation. We know how important it is to invest both at the grassroots end and at the elite end, because it is $9.5 billion to our economy. And if you are fit and healthy physically, it is most likely that you will be fit and healthy mentally, so it is a two-pronged attack. We know the importance of this sector, and we do it quite well.

I must say that we consult widely when we make determinations like this to get it right. I get that the opposition wants to have an input into it and have some relevance in relation to what is going on in terms of these investments—I get that. But as I have explained, under section 6 the minister does have the authority to form these subcommittees. We have seen it happen before, and there is no reason why it cannot happen again.

This is a great bill before the house. Other members have covered most of it, but I just wanted to make sure that everybody understands we are the best at sport and recreation—$1.5 billion worth of investment into sport and recreation. That is a record investment that no other state government has ever made. We are second to none nationally in terms of our investment in women in sport. This is a great bill. I commend it to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage.

Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (16:48): I am delighted to rise and make a few brief comments on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I just want to pick up on some of the comments that the former Minister for Sport has just spoken about and certainly note his passion for sport and community sport and how important it is. We cannot even put it in dollar terms when we talk about how much of it is an investment or how much it is worth to our economy. It is about how much it underpins our communities. It is very, very important particularly in regional Victoria, and where I am going to with this is that although you can spend $1.5 billion on community sport, not all of it but a majority of it ends up in metropolitan Melbourne. We need our fair share. We do miss out on our fair share. You just need to go to our communities—come to Yarrawonga, come to Myrtleford, come to Wangaratta—and you will see that we continually miss out.

Mr Fowles interjected.

Mr McCURDY: Well, they are not coming to Wangaratta, I see, member for Burwood. I can see you putting them in Labor seats and doing what you can there. But certainly community sport is very important; we all agree on that. It is about where the funds go. And I just think we need to remind this government that it is not about how much you spend, it is about where you spend it and how fair you are when you spend it.

Back to the bill, the State Sport Centres Trust will have management rights and responsibilities over the Knox Regional Sports Park and Lakeside Stadium and Lakeside Oval Reserve. It will also update legislation for part of the National Tennis Centre following that road widening on Hoddle Street and specifically make amendments to the State Sport Centres Act 1994 to allow the State Sport Centres Trust to manage and operate the Knox Regional Sports Park and the Lakeside Stadium and Lakeside Oval Reserve land. It will amend the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Act 1985 to reflect the new boundary of the National Tennis Centre, following that strip of road on Hoddle Street. This legislation will also include the CEO of the SSCT on the State Netball and Hockey Centre Advisory Committee.

About the bill, the State Sport Centres Trust has management responsibilities over MSAC, the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre; the State Netball and Hockey Centre, as you have heard from other speakers; and the committee of management for the Lakeside Stadium. The bill will expand those responsibilities to include the management of the Knox Regional Sports Park. At the same time the bill makes the State Sport Centres Trust directly responsible for the Lakeside Stadium and Lakeside Oval Reserve rather than as a committee of management under the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978, as is currently the case.

Sporting facilities are an incredibly important part of all of our communities, as I said a few moments ago, in every region and every community. Nearly every weekend of the year—like the member for Gembrook and the member for Ripon—we are always out supporting our local community sport, trying to make sure that we support them, we advocate for them and we know what their needs are. I am currently working with the Myrtleford Football Netball Club. They have got a massive drainage issue. You get that when you get 80 millimetres of rain a couple of nights before a game up in them there hills. We are trying to work out some drainage issues, and I am working with the Minister for Community Sport to try and assist there.

As I was saying early on in my contribution, in places like Cobram, with the footy club there, the Auskick kids cannot even see the ball because the lights are so poor. The Everton tennis courts—we just need upgrades there. Nothing has been done in those regions for many, many years. The Bright footy timekeepers box—if you have ever been to Bright in the middle of winter, you will know it gets a tad chilly up there at the base of the alpine mountains.

Mr Battin: Freezing.

Mr McCURDY: At the base of Mount Hotham, it is a tad cool up there, member for Gembrook. The timekeepers box—it is not a lot of money, but they are the sorts of things that we need in our community sport because we know they are the volunteers that come along every Saturday or Sunday or whatever night it is. They do not have a timekeepers box, let alone a heater in it. It would be nice to get a timekeepers box. They are the sorts of issues that I am talking about. We do want change rooms and facilities for females—absolutely we do want that—but at the same time we just need to keep the current change rooms and the current facilities we have got modern and ticking along there.

We know that these sporting clubs are the backbone of our communities. It is absolutely super important that we support these clubs, because they are the clubs that support our communities. The Knox Regional Sports Park is no different. It too needs support. It is the home to Basketball Victoria, Basketball Australia, the premier men’s and women’s teams and the thriving Knox Basketball Association. The developments will include 12 new community courts for local basketball competition and regional facilities for gymnastics at local and professional levels. The $132 million project will be one of Australia’s leading basketball centres. Knox City Council had a number of courts in poor condition and desperately needed that redevelopment to accommodate the current need and the growth of the sport. Council contributed $27 million to the development, with a guarantee that the trustee would take full operational responsibility. Council parks and garden staff will continue to maintain the wetlands on the site to an appropriate standard.

Football Victoria are located on the land which the SSCT would manage. In terms of the Lakeside facility, changing from a committee of management will have little, if any, impact on the day-to-day operations of the user groups and tenants. The changes bring Lakeside in line with other facilities, and they are also required to resolve difficulties with leasing and licensing around the Lakeside Stadium, due to ambiguity in exercising powers under the two acts. It essentially means the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events is the decision-maker over leases and licences, not the Minister for Environment and Climate Action.

We do have some level of concern. As with all legislation we always find there are a few concerns along the way, and we do hope the government considers the amendments that are before the house that were put by the member for Eildon. Either that or they will just bulldoze their way through, but I really do hope in this instance they will consider the amendments. We will see whether they are genuinely interested in listening and hearing other views or whether it is their way or the highway. The concern is that some of the user groups could be muscled out once the long-term lease agreement is over. Knox City Council want this to remain a community-accessible facility and not only for professional sport. Given the number of basketball courts it should be okay, but this is less so for football, soccer and gymnastics. It is important that these user groups have a voice and are heard by the SSCT.

We know that sharing facilities requires an enormous amount of give and take. In all of our small communities we generally find ovals where the cricketers use them in the summer and the footy use them in the winter—and other community groups. It is really important that we make sure that all these community groups can get along for their smooth running, because sometimes, as we all know, there can be a particular user group or a sporting club who want to think the facility is theirs and theirs alone. And what they do is then make sure they make it difficult for everybody else. We just want to make sure that all the user groups wanting to use it can and that nobody becomes the boss. The keyword is ‘community’ here in making sure that everybody in the community has their fair share, which is all we ever asked for—our fair share.

Some of the sports clubs are unsure if it would be viable for them to lease the space at Knox Regional Sports Park due to the fee payments and lower club membership numbers since, obviously, COVID-19 and the lockdowns and the restrictions. So there are concerns with the lack of numbers. Sometimes there is a flat fee that they have to pay to the organisation or the council, and they are not sure whether they can support that flat fee or not because the numbers are down. As I say, sometimes user groups get discounted rates, but with the new facilities costing more and more the situation needs to be monitored all the time. There has been consultation with tenants of the Knox Regional Sports Park—the basketball and football groups, the Ferntree Gully gymnastics association, the Victorian Institute of Sport, Athletics Victoria and various other community groups. They have all been spoken to and consulted, and we think that is important.

As I say, I do hope the government consider our amendments that will come before the house in just a few short moments and that they will consider them rather than just pushing their way through, because every one of us in this place has their communities, and community sport is the backbone of our communities. If we support community sport, community sport supports our communities. It is as simple as that. If we look after those clubs, give them somewhere to go, give them somewhere to play and give them somewhere to compete, it gets them out and about, and that is what we want to see—being out and about and being active. At the end of the day that helps their mental health and it helps their physical health. It is just a win-win all round. That is why we like to see our fair share of community sport and community infrastructure and facilities being built in our electorates, and the Ovens Valley is no different. I know all regional areas have been missing their fair share, particularly over the last eight years, and I really implore the government to stop the pork-barrelling and make sure that our regional seats do get their fair share and get considered when it comes to infrastructure in sport.

Mr TAK (Clarinda) (16:59): I am delighted to rise today to speak on the State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. It is another important bill, and I thank the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events for bringing this bill before us today. Even better—I am lucky to share an electorate boundary with the minister. The electorates of both Clarinda and Oakleigh are proud sporting districts, and I hope that I can touch on some of the fantastic local sporting clubs in the area throughout my speech.

I would like to use the remaining time here to give a shout-out to the former sports minister. He came to my electorate in 2018 to announce half a million dollars for the Dales Park pavilion, and that is now a brand new pavilion in Clarinda.

The SPEAKER: The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived and I am required to interrupt business.

Motion agreed to.

Read second time.

Third reading

Motion agreed to.

Read third time.

The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.