Soccer

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Minister for Housing and Urban Development) (15:44): I rise to speak today about something I do not have a great deal of experience in, let alone expertise—that is, football. I do not mean Aussie Rules football: I mean the beautiful game of football that some of us might refer to as soccer.

I am very privileged not only to represent the electorate of Lee but to have two thriving, growing clubs in my electorate, and I speak of two in particular: the Western Strikers football club and the White City Football Club. Both are large clubs that are not only keeping hundreds and hundreds of members of the local community active and participating in this game but also importantly recruiting juniors. getting them involved in team sport, getting them involved in a club environment and, of course, bringing their parents and their extended families all the benefits that participating in a club can bring.

White City is a football club that plays its home matches at Frank Mitchell Reserve in Seaton and it is a club with a proud history. It was founded in 1949 by a group of local residents who were Yugoslav migrants, who were often fleeing political persecution from places in Western Europe and other areas in Europe as well. Since that time, for more than 65 years or nearly 70 years now, this club has grown into one of the most successful sporting clubs in the western suburbs. Andrew Popovich, their president, ably helped by Sasha Lalic, has recruited Michael Keens, the senior coach, and they currently sit fifth in the state league.

You might think: why is that of interest or why is that relevant? For good reason—because the Western Strikers football club play in a local derby in the electorate of Lee, and it is an important match because Western Strikers have been even more successful than White City. They sit second on the state league table for the juniors, which is pretty impressive considering that their under 18s and their reserves are first respectively on their ladders. Should Western Strikers be successful, this will assist them greatly in the finals series.

But both clubs are important not just for their on-field activities and how successful they have been in this current 2017 season but they are also really important for what they are contributing to the community of Lee. Western Strikers are about to embark not just on some improvements to their clubrooms, and they are about to expand the number of teams that they field but, importantly, from next season they are looking to include women's teams. That will obviously encourage a great number of additional people who can participate in the Western Strikers club, and we look forward to assisting them with their discussions with the council, who own their clubrooms, in seeing how best they can be improved to accommodate not just the additional number of teams but women's teams, in particular.

Similarly, White City are embarking on a very significant expansion of their activities and their operations. They have recently won funding through the Treasurer and the Minister for Recreation and Sport's program to establish new football facilities—this time at Seaton Park Primary School. Seaton Park Primary School has a little over 100 students but, importantly, the partnership with White City Football Club will see the establishment of a junior soccer program at this school.

Not only will that assist the primary school students attending Seaton Park but it will ensure that more and more students can be attracted to attend this primary school in the future, and of course it can assist White City to continue to grow their junior football program. They have 13 junior teams at White City and Western Strikers have 12. I very much look forward to the local derby this weekend, and I wish them both the best of luck for the finals season.