Sports Facilities

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall government is supporting sporting infrastructure in our regions?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:29): I thank the member for Flinders very much for his question—a very hardworking member doing some wonderful work. There is so much to talk about and I've only got four minutes. I've got so much ground to cover. We talk about more jobs—

The SPEAKER: You don’t have to monopolise that four minutes if you don't want to.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —lower costs and better services. Are you going to give me extra time? I thank you, Mr Speaker. We've got a lot to get through. In the last 12 months, as well as visiting all our emergency services—as many as I can, right across the state—I have covered the length and breadth and I think I have been to just about every region there is. I have also visited a lot of the great sporting clubs and sporting communities. I have been from top to bottom, left to right, right across the state—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: The suggestion has been that I should have run more kilometres than travelled by vehicle or plane or whatever it might have been, and they are probably right: I should have run a bit more. I have put on a little bit of weight, and I apologise for that. My kids give me a hard time about putting on weight all the time. I tell them that I am just getting a thicker skin.

I was very fortunate last week to be in the member for Flinders' electorate. We went to Cleve, a wonderful country community. They have spawned some of the greatest people in South Australia. I am from Cleve. It's a great community. You wouldn't believe it, but a number of years ago they had their clubrooms blown over. Three years they have been without clubrooms and to go there and see the frame go up—I know the member for Flinders had a big smile across his face. They are doing an outstanding job.

The community has put money into this, the state government has put $630,000 into this, they are building an outstanding facility. What I liked about this in particular was that this facility doubles up as an emergency relief centre.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for West Torrens, be quiet.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: So it's a sporting club—netball, football, cricket, you name it, the sporting clubs are invited in there. The community is going to use it, they are talking about using it for weddings as well, and it is an emergency relief centre. It's absolutely outstanding. I commend Kelly Richardson, Al Schumann, Amy Allen, Frank Gillings and Robert Quinn. We met them all, and council has also had an injection in this one and we thank them very much.

We did duck across to the member for Giles' electorate as well. This used to be in the member for Flinders' electorate. We went to Cowell, and they got $87,000 for some new lights for their facility. They chipped in some money as well. It's a wonderful field. It actually has two cricket ovals on it, and it could potentially have three footy ovals on it. With the number of people they can get playing by having lights, it just about doubles the amount of activity they can have on there.

They are looking at expanding potentially out to softball for the local region and, because it gets quite warm on Eyre Peninsula, by having night games they can play deeper, longer into the season. So this is really fantastic, and it will get more people playing and more people active. It was wonderful to see Wayne Piggot over there, Rowena Norris and Matthew Franklin, three of the key instigators who actually helped make that happen.

The other point of this—and this is how resourceful people in the regions are, and I think we all know and appreciate that, and it just does bring a smile to your face—is that the new light towers are going up, and they are going to be fantastic and increase the activity, as I said. But they are that resourceful that they take the old light towers and move them over to the netball and tennis courts, and they are going to be even better lit over there as well. Everyone is a winner out of this, and the community has had a wonderful uplift.

I was down in Naracoorte on the weekend with the member for MacKillop and, again, there was a big smile on the face of the people of Naracoorte as we opened their new hockey facility down there—a great facility this one: 230 members,1,500 users. They are already talking about trying to attract some regional development, get some tournaments in and bring people in from over the border, bringing economic dollars into the local region of Naracoorte. I tell you what, they gave a stick to the member for MacKillop and he had a couple of penalty shots on goal. He might spend a lot of time being a football umpire, but he really should take up hockey. He was very impressive. It's great to be serving the regions and, as my good colleague says, #RegionsMatter.