Community Sporting Clubs

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:08): I rise today to share that it was an absolute pleasure to be able to return home to my old stomping ground last week to meet with local community clubs, families and young people who enjoy participating in sport. I certainly know growing up in Port Pirie and being able to participate in sport really helped shape me into the person that I am today, whether it was playing tennis for the Napperby Tennis Club or netball for the Solly Cats and later on St Mark's, or whether it was simply spending my Friday nights at the local basketball or in winter over at the hockey grounds.

This played such an important part in shaping who I am, helping me to develop those all-important skills: how to win, how to lose, how to communicate, how to be able to work as a team, but also that appreciation for community. When I was at things where I was not particularly participating in them, getting out and engaging with the local community—and having a sense of belonging and people to be around—was something I really, truly treasured.

It is a big part here of what the Malinauskas Labor government is wanting to encourage. We know all too well the dangers of social media. We have taken active steps, in terms of the mobile phone ban, to really protect the health and wellbeing of our young people. We know that we need to also equally make sure that we are encouraging young people to live healthy and active lives, and that is exactly why I went back to Port Pirie to engage with the local community, to hear from a regional community just how important a role sport has to play, what is working, and what we should be looking at further.

Sports vouchers certainly were raised. There has been a lot of welcome commentary in terms of the now recent expansion to Sports Vouchers Plus, which started off at the start of this year. It has, of course, now been expanded to $200, but we are also providing families with greater flexibility. You can spend it all in one go or you can choose to use two $100 vouchers across activities, seasons, or even if your child is more inclined to take up music. We do not mind what you are doing, as long as it is healthy, active and helping you get engaged in your local community, and we are playing a strong role in helping to support that.

It is really pleasing to see growing numbers in that space as well. In 2023 we saw the highest number of vouchers redeemed in a calendar year since the program's inception in 2015; that being a total of 88,840 vouchers. That was compared to 2022 when we saw 85,444 vouchers, and it is pleasing to see in 2024 we have seen over 92,000 taken up. This just shows that this program is having a continued relevance and appeal to parents, families and clubs alike, and I am very confident now with the new expansion that number is only going to increase further.

Of course cost is not the only barrier that is faced when we are looking at trying to get participation up. We know only about half of our kids are participating in sport once a week, and we want to see that go further. We also know that there are times in a young person's life where we see more significant drops, and certainly with cohorts as well, so it was a really great opportunity to engage with the local clubs to hear what they think and what programs work.

With that, I would like to very much thank Councillor Alan Zubrinich, Deputy Mayor of Port Pirie, for coming and pulling together clubs and organisations from all walks of life to have this conversation, including the Port Pirie Sporting Association, Port Pirie & District Hockey Association, Port Pirie Cricket Association, Port Pirie Junior Football Association, Port Pirie Junior Soccer Association, Full Impact ITF Taekwon-Do, Sun Taekwondo, Port Pirie Netball Association, Port Pirie Regional Gymnastics Academy, Port Pirie Hip Hop Bounce Dance Academy, Port Pirie Rowing Club, Port Pirie Softball Association, Savoy Soccer Club and, of course, the Virtus Soccer Club, and the Crystal Brook Tennis Club as well.

It is a really good collective of different sporting bodies that we have within the region, and it was really great to see what perspectives each of them had to bring to the table. I really enjoyed the visits that I had the following day with some of these clubs. It was great to get out to the netball courts and catch up with Sally and Bec to see the recently resurfaced courts, which were of course a result of the Power of Her grants that have recently gone through. They are absolutely looking spectacular, and the club is certainly in good hands with Sally and Bec.

We then went over to the hockey club where I was able to catch up with Divett, who does such an incredible job as a volunteer helping to maintain the grounds, and I know that their grant for additional lighting is going to make an excellent improvement for the season ahead.