Thursday, 5 March 2020

Whittlesea sports facilities

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (17:29): (2025) We were all rudely interrupted, but my adjournment matter is to the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, and I ask what action he is taking to turn around the shocking rate of heart disease in the City of Whittlesea. I know that in Victoria across all sports we strive to be the top of the table, but being the top of the heart disease table is not something to be proud of. Community sport is a crucial part of the equation in addressing ill health.

As a government we offer grants through Sport and Recreation Victoria and the Growing Suburbs Fund. Our school builds all include sporting facilities—and in our case around the Mernda area we have seen stadia, square pitches, football ovals and netball courts—and we have funded statewide strategies across a range of codes, especially the state netball facilities plan. I really want to commend the work of Netball Victoria for what they did in that plan. They have concluded that two of the areas with the highest deficit of courts are the western metro and the northern metro, and one of their top two projects in the state is for a regional centre in Whittlesea.

I want to thank Whittlesea’s Northern Pride Netball Association, their member clubs and especially their players for lobbying for this facility in such a measured and polite way. They attended a council meeting a few months ago, and they were able to secure unanimous support. The council do not agree on much, but they actually said that they would support a regional facility. Now we have seen that with the applications closing for sport and rec in the current round, that unanimity of support is not reflected, and I think it is just a tragedy when we have got such a horrible rate of heart disease and we would like to have better participation. But this is a council, Speaker—and I know you know this—that has had five CEOs in four years. We have just had another councillor, Cr Kirkham, resign rather than face a councillor conduct panel, which is an extremely serious matter. And then we have got Cr Monteleone. It is not good enough for him to live near and represent Thomastown, Lalor, Epping and Wollert; he has moved to a mansion in Nillumbik. So when will this council actually start putting the health and sport and recreation needs of their community first?

I really hope that we can have some support from the minister, because I know he gives a damn. The councillors might not give a damn about improvement of facilities in the City of Whittlesea—and particularly for girls sport. It is good that they have applied for some small facilities, but we need that regional facility, and I hope that the minister can help us.