Sport and Recreation Facilities

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Can the minister update the house on what steps the Marshall government is taking to make sporting facilities across the state family friendly?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:04): I thank the member for Finniss very much for his question and note the passion that he has for sport. In fact, I was with him a few months ago, down at the Port Elliot Bowling Club, rolling a few ends. He was very impressive and left me for dead.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: It is a great bowls club in his local community. The Marshall government is very proud to be investing in our future and in our sporting facilities.

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell can leave for the remainder of question time.

The honourable member for Reynell having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: It's sad to see the member for Reynell go, but I'm sure she will read the transcript.

The SPEAKER: Let's get on with it, thank you.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by those on the other side, it is great to be delivering facilities for our South Australian sporting stars of the future. Girls, boys, men, women, we want to include everyone of all ages. We will soon be rolling out our $24 million program to improve facilities—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Yes, I can see them, member for Hammond.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —for men, women and families in football, cricket and netball, some sports that are growing in huge numbers, in particular in female participation. We are excited about that. We are keen to put in facilities but lights as well, lights to keep people safe and allow people to train. They are the things that the communities are saying they want. Again, I know that in Port Elliot they got some lights for their tennis courts so they can play deeper into the night, get more people on the courts and play at more family-friendly times as well. The Victor Harbor footy club, as well—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —got $25,000 for lights. When we speak to people out there, what they say they want to do is that they actually want to play and get on the field. Yes, they want to get changed, but there is no point getting changed if there are no lights on the field and you can't go out and train. So it is really important to make sure that we get the whole lot.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The minister has the call.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: What we also want to do is make sure that these facilities are there for families so families can use them. I know that the previous government spoke a lot about female facilities, and it's important to get females involved.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: But when we go out and speak to these people in the regions and in the cities about their sporting infrastructure, they want to make sure that families can play, that families can get involved. So what we have done is made sure that we build facilities that men can use and women can use.

Mr Odenwalder interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth, be quiet.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We might have girls' carnivals or women's carnivals, and all the facilities can be rolled over and used because the change rooms are unisex; they can be used by all people. The next week, it might be the boys' turn or the men might be playing and, again, all those facilities can be utilised. We are not just leaving a change room sitting there and, if one sex is playing, no-one can use them. That doesn't make sense. We are getting everyone to use the facility when they are there. We had to tweak some of the previous government's announcements.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: One of them was at Unley. I noted that the Mayor of Unley, Michael Hewitson, made this point when he adapted the female facilities funding because he wanted to get more value out of the investment that was being made. He said:

It's far more than just women only, it's also the guys. We've now got two changerooms in the old facility available to all our schools and all our community events for different levels of competitions, for athletics days, for carnivals, even for a fair.

Again, the investment is there, but what we have done is made sure that everyone can use it. Families want to use it. It is not just there for one person: it is there for everyone, and that is really important. We don't want the double up.

We are putting the facilities in place—change rooms, lights, ovals and precincts like that—but we are also making sure that we are getting our young people available to use them, so we have increased the sports voucher. The previous government didn’t fund the sports voucher. It was at $50. We put that $50 back in and added $50 to it as well, so there is $100 for young primary school students who want to play competitive sport. We are encouraging that, and the numbers have grown. Already, we have put $2.2 million back in the pockets of South Australian families—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —so that they can help their young people to get out there, play sport and be active. It is keeping our communities healthy, it is keeping them active and people are absolutely loving it, especially in the electorate of Finniss.