Thursday, 10 March 2022

Vermont Football Club

Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (18:01): (1814) My adjournment matter tonight is not for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events; it is for the Minister for Community Sport, and the action that I seek is for her to provide $130 000 to Vermont Football Club.

Members might recall that some time ago now I directed an adjournment matter to the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events regarding the Vermont Football Club, and eventually I received a terse and puerile one-line response saying that I should simply redirect my matter to the Minister for Community Sport. Minister Pakula could have walked down the corridor and given this to Minister Spence; however, he decided to play politics, as normal, and instead asked me to redirect my matter. At the same time Vermont footy club has now planned for the start of the season. As I explained to the house last time I raised this matter, it is vital for the Vermont Football Club to receive an upgrade to its lighting. Some time ago now the council provided new lights to Vermont Football Club, but they stuffed it up and they got the wrong lights. The lights do not enable Vermont Football Club to play at night. That is the point of having lights at your football ground.

Vermont footy club is the premier suburban footy club in the country. Have a look at their record—an incredibly successful club now with a burgeoning program not just of young people but, really importantly now, of female teams. What the leadership of Vermont Football Club wants to do, and I support them in their aim unreservedly and entirely, is to make sure that their fantastic female players get just as good a run as their male players, and yet at the moment because of fixturing issues on their main ground the female teams are having to play away from the main ground, away from the wonderful facilities there and from the huge crowds that week in, week out, come to watch games at the Vermont footy club. Now, I was advised by senior members of the club just this morning that two women’s games scheduled already for the start of the season have now had to be cancelled because of this really significant issue.

This is loose change that we are talking about. We need some LED globes to go into the existing light towers this season to allow for the women’s teams to play on the main ground after the blokes. Wouldn’t it be fantastic? There are oftentimes thousands of people who go to Vermont footy club. If the minister has not been, if Labor members have not been, they need to go. It is a wonderful club, and the ask here of $130 000 is minuscule. The council should have got this right the first time, but mistakes occur. The government should step in, help the club and in the process of doing so help the expansion of the women’s game in the eastern suburbs. I will be crystal clear before I finish: the action I seek is for $130 000 to be given to Vermont Football Club for new lights, and I direct this clearly to the Minister for Community Sport.