Thursday, 1 September 2022

Bills

State Sport Centres Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Committed.

Committee

Clauses 1 to 10 agreed to.

Clause 11 (15:45)

Dr BACH: I move:

1. Clause 11, page 12, line 23, omit ‘1978.”.’ and insert “1978.”.

2. Clause 11, page 12, after line 23 insert—

‘26FF Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee

(1) There is established by this Act an advisory committee to be known as the “Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee”.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee consists of members appointed by the Minister including—

(a) a person nominated by the Trust, being a member of the Trust;

(b) a person nominated by the Knox City Council;

(c) a minimum of 5 persons nominated by sporting clubs and community groups that use and are interested in the operation and management of the Knox Regional Sports Park.

(3) The chief executive officer of the Trust is a member of the Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee.

(4) The chairperson of the Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee is the member appointed under subsection (2)(a).

26FG Function of Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee

The function of the Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee is to advise the Trust on the operation and management of the Knox Regional Sports Park and the Knox Regional Sports Park land.

26FH Procedure

Subject to this Act, the Knox Regional Sports Park Advisory Committee may regulate its own procedure.”.’.

Ms PULFORD: I wish to outline for the benefit of the house the reasons that the government does not support the amendment. We are supportive of the objective, but we think that there is a better way forward, if I could just outline for members what that is all about.

The effect of Dr Bach’s amendment is to insert into the bill a provision for an advisory committee to provide advice to the State Sport Centres Trust on the operation and management of the Knox Regional Sports Park. The government has been and continues to be absolutely committed to local voices being heard throughout the State Basketball Centre project. There has been collaboration with local stakeholders as well as state sporting organisations throughout, and it is our expectation of the trust that that would continue. In fact back when the election commitment was made for the delivery of this big project that is being incorporated into this legislative framework, Knox City Council contributed $27 million to the project and supported its redevelopment on the proviso that the state did undertake ownership of and responsibility for the asset, given the nature of it is changing and an asset of state significance is best managed—they and we agreed—under this state framework.

Given the community support for the project, we do not believe a legislated advisory committee as proposed by Dr Bach’s amendment is required, nor is it the best way to ensure that the local community has a voice in relation to the facility. Clause 5 of the bill amends the State Sport Centres Act 1994 to extend the trust’s functions to the sports park, as with all state sport centres, as members would be aware. If the bill is passed today, the authority would exist for the minister to make a direction in relation to the trust functions as they relate to the sports park. If the bill is passed, once it reaches its commencement date, hopefully fairly soon, the minister has undertaken—and he has asked me to express this to the house on his behalf—to direct the trust under section 6A of the State Sport Centres Act 1994 to establish an informal committee to allow community groups, user groups and tenants of the sports park to liaise directly with members of the trust in relation to the operation of the sports park. The minister will ask the trust to invite interested parties, including Knox City Council and tenant sporting clubs, to be part of that committee, and consideration will also be given to other relevant parties, including community groups that use and are interested in the operation and management of the park.

We believe an informal committee is a better way, a better option than a legislated advisory committee, because it would provide flexibility for people to attend meetings when the topics of the day are of interest to them rather than being a standing and inflexible sort of structure. It would also enable organisations to have the freedom to determine who would attend the meetings, and nominees would not have to undertake what would be under the model proposed quite onerous and inflexible appointment processes. We have had feedback from other advisory committees that some nominees refuse nomination because they are reticent to make the kind of commitment that membership of a formal body like that proposed in the amendment would require, and we want to avoid that here.

I think we are all very much in agreement that we want the community to have a strong and a clear and a loud voice here, but we are not supporting the amendment. We wanted to place on the record how we plan to proceed to achieve the same goal in what we believe is a better way.

Committee divided on amendments:

Amendments negatived.

Clause agreed to; clauses 12 to 30 agreed to.

Reported to house without amendment.

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (15:57): I move:

That the report be now adopted.

Motion agreed to.

Report adopted.

Third reading

Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (15:58): I move:

That the bill be now read a third time.

Motion agreed to.

Read third time.

The PRESIDENT: Pursuant to standing order 14.27, the bill will be returned to the Assembly with a message informing them that the Council have agreed to the same without amendment.

Sitting suspended 3.58 pm until 4.22 pm.