Mt Waverley Tennis Club
David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:14): (484) My matter for the adjournment tonight is about the Mount Waverley Reserve and particularly the Mt Waverley Tennis Club. There is a state government plan for the reserve that is being developed, it seems, with inadequate consultation with some of the key users. I met with the tennis club several times recently, including with my colleague Sam Groth, the Shadow Minister for Sport, and we discussed the issue here to hand. The tennis club is 99 years old this year and will be 100 years old next year. It has a very large membership. It has four courts, with access to a fifth, but the plan developed by the City of Monash requires, it seems, that you can only go forward as a tennis centre if you can provide six courts. Despite the fact that this is a very popular reserve – it is a reserve that is supported by a huge membership, including many older people; there is an older group of women who play midweek and actually enjoy the long-term camaraderie of the site – it seems council and government are working without a thought for a solution for this tennis club. It seems to me after 99 years somebody should be prepared to work to support the Mt Waverley Tennis Club. By all means change arrangements, but make sure there is a proper outcome for the Mt Waverley Tennis Club. After 99 years I say they should see their 100th year, and indeed the actual plan for the piece of land which the tennis courts are on is to turn it into a car park. Now, that seems to me to have put the cart before the horse, as it were, and not got things quite right. I do not think that this is a solution that most people would be wanting to see.
I understand that there are competing needs, and I understand the pressures that are on councils and indeed state governments in this matter, but there is money from the state government for the future of the reserve. There is council decision-making that has occurred here, but what seems to have been forgotten is the importance of that longstanding tennis club. I say the heritage of the club is important. I say the long-term members are important. I say the access of local people, including younger people, is too. When Sam Groth and I were there a week ago there was a whole group of young kids doing a tennis clinic. I thought, ‘This is magnificent. This should be protected and preserved, and a way has to be found to make sure that there is an alternative.’ If it has to be an alternate spot, well, that is an argument that we can have, but at the moment there is no realistic alternative being provided to the Mt Waverley Tennis Club. I call on the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events to intervene and make sure that the club sees its 100th year, that the extraordinary members who play there are looked after and that there is an outcome that is not so harsh as to close forever an almost 100-year-old tennis club.