HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-07-06 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Netball SA

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (14:33): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on the future of netball in South Australia?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:33): Absolutely, Mr Speaker. Not too dissimilar from the creation of a new university or the university amalgamation proposition, netball has also been crying out for active government leadership to aid their cause for some time. I think there is a degree of frustration that there was inaction from governments most recent past.

Having become aware of the situation that netball has in South Australia, we as a government have been very keen to engage. The Minister for Sport and Recreation and I, and our relative departments, have had a number of meetings over some time with Netball, including a substantially important one a few weeks ago here in the Watarru Room.

We had a few different objectives. The first thing is this: there is a problem that needs to be fixed at Mile End. Netball has over 35,000 participants in our state. It is one of the most participated in sports in our state by a very long way. It is, I think, quite frankly, a shame that netball at Mile End is participating in their most elite facility—it leaks, there are problems with backup generation. We wouldn't allow this in other professional sports; we shouldn't allow it to happen to this one. So we want to get a plan going forward. The Thunderbirds—and I note the member for Schubert is wearing pink, presumably—

Mrs Hurn: And black.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —and black—in the name of the Thunderbirds this weekend. For the record, the whole parliament, I have no doubt, is behind the Thunderbirds winning on Saturday night. They deserve an elite facility. We believe that the obvious answer for that is the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The 36ers play there now for their home and away games. We should be doing the same for the Thunderbirds. That hasn't happened in the past because there has been financial risk to Netball SA for doing that.

The government has stepped in. Treasury has put a bit of work in this, along with Sport and Rec, and we are now underwriting the risk to netball in South Australia for those games. I don't think there is a risk because I think they are going to get 7,000 to 9,000 people week in, week out at the Entertainment Centre, which will generate new revenue for the Thunderbirds, particularly from season ticket sales and corporate facilities being made available for revenue purposes.

The T-birds are going to the Entertainment Centre for their home and away games. We have also made a cash injection to netball in South Australia to aid them in the preparation for that effort ahead of next year. Now that we have a permanent, long-term home for the Thunderbirds, we are able to look at the way Mile End is constructed to get more courts in an appropriate frame. Not having to build 7,000 seats there, we can invest that money more wisely in community facilities.

Finally, as has been made known publicly, I was trying to get the grand final this weekend to be here in Adelaide. It is desperately unfortunate from my perspective it's in Melbourne, but when it was clear that we couldn't get the grand final here this year we thought, 'Well, let's get it next year,' and I can confirm to the house that next year the Suncorp Super Netball League Grand Final will be here, where it should be—right here in Adelaide.

Hopefully, this time in 12 months we will all be celebrating the fact that the T-birds are defending their premiership at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in front of 9,000 fans because the Labor government has backed in netball in South Australia.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT