Local Sport and Recreation

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:32): I am pleased to have an opportunity today to speak about how our local sporting clubs are dealing with this brave new world we live in and responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. I think it is fair to say that the demands and pressures on administrators of amateur and local sporting clubs are not what they used to be. A lot has changed in a very short period of time.

What were once considered almost honorary roles that did not require what you would describe as onerous amounts of work now necessitate office bearers being experts in a whole range of different areas, including things like occupational health and safety, liquor licensing, grant applications and public liability insurance. Add this to the fact that those administrators, almost 100 per cent of the time now, are also working in full-time jobs and trying to manage the stresses of family and children themselves.

Without a doubt, it is a good thing to see our amateur sporting clubs change from being what was once largely the domain of men to what is now a far more family-friendly environment, but with this modernisation have come some pretty big demands on those selfless people who take up the roles year in and year out to keep their club on the pitch, field or court. Putting all those demands to one side, 2020 has brought a whole new and unforeseen complexity to the management of local sporting clubs.

Not only are our clubs now expected to run like professional sporting organisations but they are also required to navigate the complexities of complying with the very important COVID-19 restrictions that we have in place. Not for a second am I suggesting that any of those restrictions should be relaxed; I am merely using this opportunity today to thank all our local sporting clubs and the volunteers within them for all the amazing work they have done over the past months to keep their clubs afloat and ready to resume competitive matches.

Recently, I attended a number of local sporting events at clubs in the broad area in and around where I represent, including Brahma Lodge Football Club, Modbury Hawks Football Club, Modbury Vista Soccer Club, Modbury Jets Soccer Club, North East Hockey Club and, last but definitely not least, Para Hills West Soccer Club. I was incredibly impressed by the lengths to which these clubs had gone, not only to comply with all the relevant COVID-19 restrictions that we have in place but also to accommodate as many as possible of the spectators, who had waited very patiently for months to see their teams resume action.

Some of the measures taken by those clubs include fixing signage to the ground outside canteens and bars to ensure that social distancing was maintained when queueing for food and drinks, roping off undercover areas and actively policing the number of people within each of those areas, making hand sanitiser readily available for all attendees and staggering the playing times to limit the number of spectators present in the area at any one time.

By way of highlighting the pressures that these clubs and volunteers are under, I share the following anecdote that was passed on to me by volunteers of one of the clubs that I visited. This club had gone to extraordinary efforts to meet all the COVID-19 preventative measures, but early in the afternoon they received an anonymous phone call from somebody who had attended a match earlier that day to complain that social distancing rules were not being observed because players who were sitting on the sidelines were too close together.

Yes, that is right, this anonymous complainer was untroubled by the fact that, just moments before, those players had been actively engaged in a contact sport on the field but still saw fit to call the volunteers of the club and give them a really big serve about the fact that social distancing had not necessarily been maintained when they had come off for a spell.

I want to use this opportunity today to offer my thanks to the volunteers, on behalf of all the local residents who were clearly thrilled to be able to get back out and watch their beloved local sporting clubs play again, for all the work and stress—and yes, sometimes criticism—that they endured over the past months to make this a reality.

My message today to all those spectators who have eagerly awaited the return of local sport is this: please have some patience and understanding for the tireless volunteers who are trying to manage all the pressures they already have of running a volunteer amateur sporting organisation—on top of that, it is in the midst of a global pandemic. Know that they are taking every precaution necessary and doing everything in their power to keep players and spectators safe, but acknowledge, too, that they are volunteers who have taken these roles on in addition to their own work and family commitments, which in many cases have already been severely disrupted by COVID-19.

We all want to see life return to normal and to prevent the spread of COVID that we are seeing across the border, but we need to show some understanding for the hardworking, selfless women and men who run our local sporting organisations we love so much, and know that they are doing everything in their power to keep us safe.