2016-02-25
Mr BARBER (Northern Metropolitan) — The Greens will support the Kardinia Park Stadium Bill 2015. When the topic of the legislation is sport, we find that members of this Parliament are more voluble than they are on almost any other topic in this place. I suppose in that respect we are just like other Victorians — once we get onto the topic of sport, it is possible to go on almost indefinitely. But we do not have that opportunity here today. I have got a strict time limit and a clock that is counting down on me. We also have some other matters to deal with.
[Speech was interrupted.]
Mr BARBER — Now, Mr Ramsay, who of course is from down Geelong way, will no doubt have a lot to add as well.
We are supporting the bill, and we are supporting the measures in the bill designed to set up the Kardinia Park precinct, a broader precinct with a number of different sports, sporting clubs and associated activities in it, as Mr Drum has said, and to set up that precinct for its own financial sustainability.
On the topic of funding for sport it would be possible to go on for quite some time. We have a sport and recreation strategy in place here in Victoria. I believe it is about to expire and a new one is to be written. I would hope that there are some issues that are taken into account along the way. One would be the issue of not just the cost and sustainability of supporting some high-profile sports such as AFL, particularly in Geelong, but also amateur sport. People participating in amateur sport find increasingly that they are out of pocket in doing so. There is the ever-present issue of the need to promote women's sport, and that includes in the area of facilities, as well as all the development that athletes want and need to reach their full potential — and for that matter the issue of professional women's sport, the disparity in pay and livelihoods, the difficulty of getting the sport broadcast so that more people can enjoy watching it, and all the other many issues that go along with that.
As I said, it is a much broader discussion that the Greens are keen to be part of. My colleague in the lower house the member for Prahran, who holds this portfolio, has had quite a bit to say in his speech in the second-reading debate on this bill. I would refer members to that if they want to know a little bit more about what the Greens approach is at the moment to encouraging recreational activities, including in the area of organised sport.
The question of major events and those major facilities is, of course, quite a broad one. We want to get good value out of the money that we spend on major events. I am not even going to start on the subject of the grand prix because I do not want to give Mr Dalidakis any ammunition. We need to make sure that the money put into major sporting events gets us a good rate of return. That is a matter that has been scrutinised in this Parliament at various times, and I am sure it will continue to be in future — including by the Auditor-General, one should note. With those few words, I will leave it to others to give their speeches, and we will move on to some other important matters that we can hopefully conclude today.
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