Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Women’s sport

Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:58): (439) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister Dimopoulos. In recent weeks we have witnessed the incredible scenes of Matildas fever sweeping Australia. 11.15 million Australians tuned in to watch the semifinal match against England, making it the most watched television program since records have been kept. This tidal wave of love for our national women’s soccer team has been labelled as a game changer for women’s sport in this country.

Unfortunately, Australian female athletes still face many more barriers to participation and progression than their male counterparts. This is an ongoing struggle for adequate resources, funding, support and equal pay, as the minister is well aware. Even at the very highest levels of their sports many athletes cannot earn enough money to make a career of it and are forced to take on additional work or leave professional sport altogether. Women’s sport is crying out for support, and the old rhetoric that women’s sport simply is not as popular has clearly been proven wrong. But the thing is, it did not ever need to be. There is no justification for this gross and systematic divide in resources, facilities and pay. During the women’s FIFA World Cup, commitments were made by FIFA to future pay parity with the men’s game, which I welcome, but it is still a hard pill to swallow that the winning team of the women’s FIFA World Cup took home $6.6 million while last year’s men’s winning team took home an eye-watering $64.6 million in prize money.

It is terrific that following the event the federal government announced $200 million to fund the improvement of sporting infrastructure, including facilities and equipment for women and girls. I acknowledge the government’s guarantee of more free-to-air broadcast for women’s sports. Many, including me, were frustratingly unable to watch many of the World Cup games because of its limited presence on free-to-air television. But the reality is this is a drop in the ocean compared to professional men’s sport. Somewhere in Australia right now our future Matildas are out there, turning up to practice three times a week and watching every game. Right now they need our help. We can give them the support and resources they need so that nothing stands in their way. Former Socceroo Craig Foster has called on state governments to get involved in increasing grassroots funding to foster more opportunities for women and girls in sport. So the action I seek is that the minister consider how we can get women and girls to engage and participate in sport throughout their lives and for the minister to direct greater investment into grassroots women’s sport programs around Victoria.