Saints Gym Club

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:24): I rise to update the house on the plight of the Saints Gym Club and its search for new premises. The Saints Gym Club is a beloved local sporting club in my electorate and is a really important part of our local community. For over 47 years now, hundreds of girls and boys, budding gymnasts alike, have been training at St Peter's Girls' School in my electorate, but they are now desperately searching for a new home.

With over 370 young members and a further more than 500 on the waiting list, the club is absolutely thriving but is now in need of some really urgent assistance if it is going to continue. I had the privilege of visiting the club a couple of weekends ago on a Saturday and seeing everyone in action. It is a very happy and active site indeed. We want to do everything we can to ensure it can continue, so we are calling on the government but also the local community to help identify any potential facilities that the Saints Gym Club can operate out of moving forward.

There are some unique and special requirements around space and ceiling heights, which can present some challenges in identifying a suitable location. We also want to make sure it is proximate to its many members in the eastern suburbs and ideally has space where equipment can be left out. One of the things I observed on Saturday is their very extensive set-up routine, which takes hours in itself and many hours of staff wages to do that as well. Transporting and storing equipment remains a limiting factor at many venues.

The eastern suburbs, we know, unfortunately are just starved of open space. It is a really big problem that many of the local sporting clubs face, and the latest is Saints Gym Club. I first raised this issue with the former Minister for Sport and various local councils about a year ago now, and I want to thank the former Minister for Sport for sitting down with me in the club to try to think of some locations where we might be able to move. I also thank Burnside council for doing the same and, indeed, the shadow minister for sport for meeting with me in the club earlier this year.

There are a lot of very well-meaning people who want to ensure this club can continue and are working hard to try to identify new locations that it can continue at. I am pleased that the club has now had the opportunity itself to sit down with the new Minister for Sport and also with the Office for Recreation and Sport in an attempt to work constructively to identify potential facilities that it can move into. Happily, I understand there are a few live sites that are being considered, and I do hope that at least one of them might be suitable, even if just on a temporary basis while a longer term solution can be considered.

So I call on the government and the Office for Recreation and Sport to keep working with the club to try to identify a site that it can move into because losing this club that serves nearly 400 young boys and girls, young athletes, in my electorate and another 500 on the waitlist would be an absolute tragedy. Also, I call on the local community: if you know of anywhere that might be suitable for this club to move into, a really important part of our local community, I would love to hear from you.

I think we cannot overstate the role the club plays in our local community, a really important role in not only perhaps creating the next generation of young Olympians but also simply keeping local kids active, keeping kids away from screens and devices. It is a key focus of mine; I thought it was a key focus of this government—well, here is a club working very hard every day to try to do just that. We should support them in any way we can.

I want to conclude by thanking all of those at the club who are working very hard to identify new locations, including Jess and Lucy, and offer them and the wider club community my full support in helping to find a new location for them to move to.