ACTIVE CLUB PROGRAM

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:26): I rise today to talk about the successful grant recipients in the Ramsay electorate of the Active Club Program. I want to say that if there is one thing about the northern suburbs, it is their commitment to and love of sport. Particularly, the big winner of round 35 was Brahma Lodge Sports Club, and they have received a cheque for $16,494 to assist with the installation of solar panels. One of the things that Salisbury council has been very pragmatic about is supporting our sports clubs to reduce some of their utility costs, and they have been supporting many of the sports clubs in Salisbury and Parafield Gardens to install solar panels.

One of the other clubs that has been successful is a smaller club called Cressy Bowmen Incorporated. Cressy Bowmen Incorporated do archery, which is quite interesting, and their Active Club grant is to assist with club development, planning and programming and sports equipment; they received a cheque for $1,300. One of the other successful groups is the Girl Guides South Australia Incorporated, and that was to assist the Salisbury District guides with ground maintenance equipment, hardship subsidies and uniforms; that was a cheque of $5,000.

The other club is the Salisbury Amateur Athletic Club. I had the honour of being able to go along to some of their presentation nights. This is an adult athletics club, and they have been quite successful. Obviously, what we look to do is have one or two (or maybe more, if we are lucky) people who are members of this athletics club to go and represent us at the Commonwealth Games, and ultimately at the Olympic Games. Their cheque for $2,200 is to assist with ground maintenance equipment, some coaching and official training and development, and some club promotion.

The Salisbury Bowling Club was also successful, and they have a cheque for $4,900. They meet at Orange Avenue bowling club. That is also to assist with ground maintenance equipment, sport equipment and club programming. Another recipient was the Salisbury East Little Athletics Centre, and I have been lucky to go along to many of their presentations. What I am most impressed by with Salisbury East Little Athletics is that they have incredibly long-term commitment by some of their office holders, and they are very active in encouraging children starting from as young as five and six to participate in athletics. They were successful for a $5,000 cheque for sport equipment, uniforms, club promotion and ground maintenance equipment.

The final group that was successful for Active Clubs was Trikings Incorporated. Trikings is a triathlon club located at Happy Home Reserve in the Salisbury Recreation Precinct. I was very fortunate on Sunday to go along and present them with their cheque. They were holding an aquathon on Sunday, and I have to say I did not participate myself but it involved swimming and running. It was delightful to see community police officers present as well as St John's, many parents and friends. The adults ran first in the morning and the children ran later.

They were successful in obtaining a $5,000 grant to support coaching and official training, club development and sporting equipment. One of the things they told me they were working at training on was building people's capacity and their skill set to get them to be more efficient and effective at the different parts of the triathlon. I want to thank the government for what is a really fantastic program, and the people of Ramsay really appreciate this support.