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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-19 Daily Xml
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Giles Electorate

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:19): There is a bit of a sporting theme to the grievances today. I guess it is that time of the year—

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr HUGHES: It is exactly that time of the year, so I am not going to wax lyrical on state football, because I have no team there, and I am not going to wax lyrical on the AFL, because I am out of that as well. I could perhaps be a bit of a tart and go with the Roosters in the state league, given that they now have the recruitment zone for Whyalla, but I greatly miss Port Adelaide's contribution to Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula. They were a great team for that area and for the young people who were nurtured on Eyre Peninsula. I have to say that my heart would just not be in going for North Adelaide.

At a local level in Whyalla, it was an excellent result to see Westies once again take out the final against Weeroona Bay, but I was more than happy to see Weeroona Bay, after many years, reach the grand final. It is a bit of a battlers club, Weeroona Bay, but years ago my son played for Westies for some time, so I was loyal to Westies. Unfortunately, I could not make the game in my own community because my son, who had moved to Adelaide, is now one of those who commute to Yorke Peninsula to play on Yorke Peninsula.

So I had a choice, and what do you do? Do you stay local and support the team you have been loyal to for many years or do you do the family thing and go to Yorke Peninsula and support a team you do not have a commitment to? However, I can tell members that now I have spent the weekend on Yorke Peninsula, the Cougars are my team on Yorke Peninsula. Unfortunately they did go down, but the night back at the Maitland Football Club was an incredibly enjoyable one.

I have to say that facility is an excellent one, and obviously a reflection of the effort that community put in to getting that new clubroom. That highlights the capacity of different communities to deliver. Some communities are well resourced, and have people who can be put together to get things done. That is in all communities but, when it comes to resources available to them, some communities fall well short.

It was one of the disappointing things in the budget—I will introduce a political note now—to see most of the major sporting commitments were to communities and facilities here in Adelaide. There was not much in the way of support for facilities in country areas. That was particularly disappointing for me given that, if re-elected, we did commit just under $6 million for the start of a sports hub in Whyalla, which is desperately needed. We also committed half a million dollars to a decent multisport change facility in Roxby Downs, also in my electorate.

Just the other day I had the great pleasure of presenting a cheque for $5,000 to Kirsty Arbuckle, a dynamo for the Steel United Soccer Club in Whyalla. I have had an association of sorts with Steel United going back over many years—that was the home clubroom of the amateur soccer team I used to play for many years ago—and it is really sad to see the state of some of the facilities at our soccer clubs, and a lot of other clubs, in regional South Australia. I am sure it is the same in some of the metropolitan areas as well, but they are clearly substandard facilities.

That is one of the really good things that government can do, hopefully governments of all persuasions, invest in sporting facilities and do a lot more to ensure we get young people involved in sport. Preferencing those areas has always been my preference rather than the high-end of sporting activity; it is grassroots sporting activity that is so incredibly important for so many reasons.

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