Page 3910 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 December 2021
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Woden—indoor sports facilities—petition 48-21
MS DAVIDSON (Murrumbidgee) (10:03): Madam Speaker, it has been a long year and you have all had to listen to me bang on about sports facilities in Woden quite a lot. I thank you all for your patience with me, and I promise that this is the last time this year that I will do this in this place; I hope, maybe—just this year; not tomorrow.
There is a reason why sports are such an important part of our national identity. I do not just mean elite level like the Australian men’s cricket team, who could learn a thing or 20 from Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy! Community and ACT-level sports are a real driver for how we connect with each other and how we come back from challenges. Gabrielle Sutcliffe, with the ACT Meteors, and Grace Kemp and Louise Burrows from Royals Rugby, are great examples of the local talent we have both as players and as community leaders.
But even more than that, it is the coaches, the team managers and the club volunteers for junior sports and social comps who are leading our community, making sure our community sports are welcoming, inclusive, accessible and build both our physical skills and our ability to work collectively towards goals and to overcome setbacks. This is why community voices matter in shaping sports and recreation infrastructure decisions.
In ensuring the voices of the community are heard and that future facilities meet community needs, I would very much like to see a community conversation around what our needs are now and into the future for both indoor and outdoor facilities. What we have had in the past may not be the same as what we need in the future, and community clubs can help us understand where the future of their sport is headed. People with disability and seniors also use sports facilities and need to be engaged in the conversation.
Rather than just maintaining facilities that were designed for the Woden of 50 years ago, or replacing like with like, let us talk about building better to meet the needs of a population that is bigger and more diverse than ever before. As I have mentioned once or twice in this place previously, Mr Davis’s facilities management plan will allow for a more strategic and comprehensive approach to the management and maintenance of our sports and recreation facilities based on needs in consultation with our community and sporting stakeholders. I thank him for having called for that back in April. I am really looking forward to the ACT government’s draft facilities management plan and to supporting an approach that is developed in consultation with the community and designed to respond to community needs.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
LGBTQI+ community—capital of equality strategy
Ministerial statement
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Climate Action, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism) (10.06): I am pleased
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