Tuesday, 14 November 2023

 John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (13:13): I am thrilled to rise to share some exciting news with the house. The Melbourne Mavericks, our nation’s newest Suncorp Super Netball team, are now officially based at Jells Park in the Glen Waverley district, with their home amongst the gum trees. In an absolute coup for the community, the mighty Mavericks now call the terrific Waverley Netball Centre home, where thousands of local young people already train and play. It means the Mavericks will be part of our local community, with plenty of opportunities for interface with the local clubs and netballers, who might just be able to get a glimpse of the stars of Australian netball at open training events and potential show matches down the track. Recently I had the pleasure of welcoming the Minister for Community Sport to the Glen Waverley electorate to celebrate this great news alongside officials from Netball Victoria, Monash council and the Waverley Netball Centre. The new base of the Melbourne Mavericks is great news for sport, especially women’s sport, and builds on the exciting progress we are making at Vermont Reserve. That is at the other end of my electorate, where works are underway as we speak to boost capacity for women’s footy too. I am proud to be part of the Allan Labor government that is getting on and backing local sport and backing the mighty Mavericks. I have signed up as a Mavericks member, and I encourage my entire community to support them too. I look forward to seeing the Mavericks flourish and go from strength to strength as my community’s very own SSN squad.