SHADOW MINISTER FOR SPORT VISITS HASTINGS
25-May-2009
Last week, Shadow Minister for Sport, Hugh Delahunty and I met with sporting bodies from throughout our area, including the townships of Somerville, Balnarring, Crib Point, Hastings and Langwarrin.
It has become apparent that many of our sporting bodies are doing it tough in below standard facilities so I asked the Shadow Minister for Sport to come and see the situation first hand.
We were not able to visit all of the hundreds of clubs throughout our community, but the Shadow Minister left with the very clear understanding that much needs to be done in the way of upgrading our sporting facilities, to even begin to match the great contributions made by our local volunteers.
It is always a privilege to meet with people that volunteer their time to make sure our community has such an outstanding range of sports to pursue; but it never fails to amaze me how unselfish they are.
One club we met with, that has several hundred members, does not even have a room to conduct their meetings in; but all they were focused on was getting better facilities for the kids.
Whilst it is not the whole solution, there is no doubt that involvement in organized sport provides children with some level of protection from drugs and other risk taking activities. It is critical therefore that our community has the facilities available and that they are of the desired standard.
I will be meeting with both the state government and Council to discuss what can be done to bring our sporting facilities up to the level expected by the community.