Women in Sport

Mr TARZIA (Hartley) (14:56): Very wise speech, sir. A question to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing: has the minister received a proposal from Sport SA to build a dedicated centre for women's sport and, if so, what was the minister's response?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:57): Excellent, fantastic!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: This is so good.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: What an excellent day.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: What a brilliant day. What I can say is that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —in line with our government's, with all of us on this side of the house's extraordinary, outstanding record of supporting and empowering women in sport, the prior government instituting the $24 million Female Facilities Program cruelly cut—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —by those opposite—

The SPEAKER: Order, minister! We are approaching the dusk of question time, which does seem to invite a certain volume of interjections. There have been a number of points of order and a good deal of interjection today, which does tend to diminish the time available for questions. The member for Badcoe is warned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Well, the member for Hartley is on a final warning. The temptations are great to exercise 137A; however, they will be resisted. The minister has the call.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: As I was saying, in line with our government's extraordinary record on being committed to women's sport, having a deep understanding of the fact that to enable women in sport to equally and actively participate in their sporting passions you need to have facilities, and being the party that—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is on a final warning.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —invested in the $24 million Female Facilities Program—

The SPEAKER: Minister!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: Sorry.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley and the member for Badcoe will depart under 137A for a modest five minutes, the remainder of question time.

The honourable members for Hartley and Badcoe having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The minister has the call.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: As I said, unfortunately that $24 million dedicated Female Facilities Program was cruelly cut by those opposite. Also, it was only after considerable community campaigning that that group of loud—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —this barrage of angry people over here—

Mr Whetstone: Sixteen years!

The SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —decided to be shamed into being part of the bid for the FIFA Women's World Cup. We have a really strong record on women in sport. Continuing with that record, I am really pleased to say that we have funded the Women's Sport Academy. We made that commitment at the election. We have delivered on that commitment. I'm a little puzzled by the question because we have made the commitment, we have delivered the commitment and the Women's Sport Academy is actually launched. Again, we are demonstrating our commitment to women's sport.

I might just mention one other thing that has been a really good step forward for women in sport in the latest round of Active Club grants after discussion at a series of Women in Sport Task Force meetings, which we have also reinstated after they were cut. We have changed the Active Club grant program so that clubs can apply for funds that provide education around periods or that provide uniforms that might enable girls and women to feel more confident and comfortable to participate when they have their period. We have enabled organisations to use that for period products in clubs. That has been another really good step forward that has been very well received by girls and women in sport and by clubs all over our state.

I really look forward to seeing those projects progressed, and I look forward to continuing our work through the Women in Sport Task Force to continue to advance gender equality in sport. We know this is important because when we see girls and women being celebrated and supported for being strong, skilful, talented, powerful and out there playing their sport at the highest level, it is transformative in terms of how girls and women are seen. It gives us the opportunity to tackle issues of gender equality in many other areas of life.