Page 2521 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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Then there are the priorities of this government that leave a lot to be desired for community-based sport. There is the Kingston oval, which needs an urgent upgrade of dressing room and grandstand facilities. The oval is used by cricket and AFL. There are around 3,000 players playing at these ovals and at other nearby ovals. These sports contributed around $40,000 to carry out a much-needed upgrade at Kingston oval earlier this year. The ACT government’s contribution was $8,000. Compare this in terms of priority with Mr Barr’s commitment to beach volleyball—around $750,000 for the upgrading of the beach volleyball venue, with six new beach volleyball courts at a cost of around $750,000 for a sport that has around 300 social players.
Woden park had a few other issues. One that we need to talk about is the state of the ground; there was an issue there. When the Woden-Weston Football Club came back to play on the venue that they had had to vacate for 12 months, they came back to a playing surface that was inferior to the surface they had before the $7 million redevelopment.
Of course, all of this was delivered to the local sport community at a cost far higher than ever before. The cost of delivering community sport has become substantially higher year after year. I have had multiple clubs approach me telling me their story of how higher charges for ground hire are making it harder and harder to deliver their sport. The higher costs mean that clubs are being forced to consider charging more to parents and participants for uniform costs, equipment costs and so on.
This government has had no shame in gouging our community for hire charges. Late last year I had another club tell me that in order to attempt to keep the training costs down they shared the hire cost of an oval. However, when they received their respective invoices, they had both been charged the full cost of lighting and were told that they could not split the cost. Both clubs were required to pay the full amount. I think Mr Wall was referring to red tape; this fits into that category pretty well.
Clubs of outdoor sports are not the only ones who are finding life tough. The Olympic pool has had a number of issues over the last few years. We had the continued leaks and the closure, which all lead to a future that is clouded and uncertain. What is the future for the Canberra Olympic pool? What about the diving pool?
This government seems to have no plans to consult with the aquatic community about what facilities they need. This is in direct contradiction to the government’s response to the indoor facilities study in January in which the minister said:
… I am committed to supporting all Canberrans to have access to quality facilities and to encourage active living.
That is, of course, unless your sport’s facilities require having a diving board, a pool that does not leak or an oval that has a quality surface or, in some cases, just being able to get access to a community facility such as the Mpower dome.
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