Grievance Debate

Cove Sports and Community Club

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (15:33): Cove Sports and Community Club, located at Oval Road, Hallett Cove, was established in the 1980s. It sits on the east side of Lonsdale Road, overlooking the Field River gully to Gulf St Vincent and, surf clubs aside, would be one of the few sporting clubs in the state with a spectacular sea view.

During my time as a City of Marion councillor I built a strong relationship with the club and in particular its manager, Mr Keith Noble, a fellow Scotsman and long-term Hallett Cove resident. I was pleased to be able to continue this relationship during my candidacy for the state seat of Bright and in particular to be able to be joined by the member for Mitchell, himself a candidate at the time.

You do not have to be at the Cove Sports and Community Club for long to realise that it is a critical part of the southern community. The club sits on the boundary between the electorates of Bright and Mitchell and primarily services Hallett Cove in my electorate and Sheidow Park and Trott Park in the member for Mitchell's electorate. The club is home to five different sports: Australian Rules football, soccer (or football as I would call it), BMX, netball and cricket.

There is no doubt that the club is the biggest community hub in the local area. Its average patronage over the course of a week is close to 7,000 people and it is the main sports facility for a community of around 23,000, the combined populations of Hallett Cove, Sheidow Park and Trott Park. With almost one-third of its catchment community accessing the club, its significance cannot be underestimated.

During our many visits to the club, the member for Mitchell and I were taken aback by the standard of the facilities at the club. While the community's use of the club is thriving, years of underinvestment in the facility have meant that it has grown tired and outdated: it does not have disability access; in early 2013, one of its light towers suffered a dangerous collapse; storage space is insufficient; and changing rooms do not meet the appropriate standards. Yet in the face of these difficulties, the club spirit is not daunted and it continues to grow its patronage.

In November 2013, the member for Mitchell and I were delighted to be able to pledge $500,000 to the club if a Liberal government was elected. To give credit where credit is due, we were pleased to note that the government almost matched this promise through the club's success in the round of the Office for Recreation and Sport grants to be provided to the club in the new financial year. We hope that the government keeps true to its word and follows through with this funding.

The funds will be a catalyst for a transformation in the club, combining with funds from the City of Marion to trigger an upgrade worth around $1 million and paying for new lighting, changing rooms, additional storage space, disability access and a fantastic new spectator balcony, with ocean view, which will open up new revenue streams for the club by making the site a more attractive function venue.

Uniquely, the club will also be providing its own financial contribution to the upgrade. This is in itself a huge success story. Just a few years ago, the club was saddled with a crippling debt, but it has worked diligently to pay this down and build a surplus. This is all the more impressive given that the club has committed to remaining family friendly, avoiding gaming machines and at the same time looking to diversify its income streams so that it does not need to rely only on the sale of alcohol to raise funds.

In late 2013, the club hosted the successful Cove Fair, and it is hoped that the upcoming renovation will enable it to raise more money from functions. I note with interest that this financial turnaround took place under the stewardship of a Scotsman and refer government members to his abilities. They may like to enlist his skills in debt reduction when preparing the state budget.

Cove Sports and Community Club is one of those clubs which is part of the very fabric of the community it serves. It is an important meeting place, a place for social engagement, and it provides a place for people of all ages to enjoy sport and keep fit—all the more important when statistics show that 25 per cent of Australian children are obese.

Cove Sports is also a development ground for young sporting talent. Earlier in the year, the Cove Cobras, the club's AFL club, celebrated their former junior Michael Galley's debut with Glenelg in the SANFL. The Cove Sports and Community Club, like many of our clubs, gets little in the way of assistance. It gets no recurrent funding, like a library or a community centre, yet despite struggles with finances and facilities it continues to survive. It is not about the bricks and mortar; it is about the people, people like Keith Noble, its manager; Andy Fry from the soccer club; Trevor Wigg of the BMX club; Tracey Harris and David Gilbert from the netball club; and Darren Thomas of the cricket club.