Grievance Debate

Women in Sport

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:16): Sporting clubs provide the basis for bringing communities together, providing opportunities to compete in healthy competition, to exercise and to socialise. Today, tens of thousands of girls and women are registered to play a sport across our state, and numbers playing traditionally male-dominated sports are rapidly growing.

Through our South Australian Women in Sport Taskforce, the former Labor government led the way in ensuring that girls and women are equal participants in all aspects of sport in South Australia, and we had significant momentum towards achieving gender equality in sport. With the increase in participation by women and girls has come the need for suitable facilities, in particular female change facilities.

In government, Labor recognised and responded to this increasing need and delivered opportunities across the state for local clubs to build such facilities, enabling grassroots sports to flourish. We boosted participation, providing more sport changing rooms for girls and women. This is because Labor believes that girls and women who play sport in South Australia should have access to the same level of facilities as boys and men. With the growing interest of women in sport locally in my electorate of Torrens, sporting clubs are developing female participation programs for juniors through to senior competition.

Australian Rules football is a name synonymous with Australian culture and our national identity. It is men who have traditionally played the sport that so many men and women hold dear—the sport that rules and divides our workplaces and sometimes even our lounge rooms. Recent years have seen great progress, with women and girls playing Aussie Rules at a local, state and national level.

At Gaza Sports and Community Club, the Gaza women's football team, only in its second year, fought their way to the top of the ladder, taking out the holy grail, the premiership, last year. The number of women on the player list has grown considerably, with the vision for adding another women's football team. At the junior level, Gaza currently has two girls' teams in the competition and the club is also exploring a women's cricket team and a girls' Twenty20 rules cricket team.

Having female change rooms and other facilities at our sporting clubs sends an important message to women and girls. It sends the message that they are welcome in a sport and that their club's culture is one that will facilitate their participation. Labor made an election commitment of $500,000 for female change facilities for women and girls to Gaza Sports and Community Club—infrastructure where they can change on match day and at training sessions, as the boys and men do.

I would like to put on record that, along with members of the club, I look forward to the new Liberal government following through with their election promise to match Labor's $500,000 commitment for female change facilities at Gaza Sports and Community Club. This type of investment in women's sporting success will pay dividends into the future, setting up young girls and women for sporting success.

Gaza women's football team is an amazing team, captained by Peita, vice captained by Kelsey, assisted by the leadership team of Mel, Crystal Lim and Tash, and players Tanya, Lydia, Kelsey, Joy, Hayley, Louisa, Brigette, Elisabetta, Jessie, Bonnie, Stephanie, Eviie, Melissa, Shondell, Georgia, Peita, Marni, Natasha, Madison, Colleen, Dulcie, Rachel, Crystal, Lliana, Danielle, Keiren, Amy-Rose, Chelsea, Denni, Jaimi, Larisa, Imogen, Anna, Keleia, Amayia and Jovanka. The club is looking forward to what we hope will be an election promise that is kept by the current government.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work and the dedication of president, Gary Marshall; vice president, Ellis Burchell; senior football director, Renato Tudorovic; junior football director, Natasha Jenke; and cricket director, Pete Ellis. I, too, acknowledge, the commitment of the women's team coach Kim Knevitt, assistant coaches Shane Knevitt and Paul Hamilton, and team manager Sonja Knevitt; in the under-12 team, coach Paul Mellish and team manager Tracey Wade; and in the under-14 team, coach Troy Harvey and team manager Kerrie May.

I make special mention of players in the under-12 team: Jaime, Kira, Kate, Klana, Elisha, Jessica, Kirsten, Mackenzie, Maddalyn, Mirakii and Taylor; and in the under-14 team, Tori, Jasmine, Elaine, Evie, Shykoda, Shallen, Raquelle, Stephanie, Stella, Lauren, Rhiannon, Renie and Lara.