Page 3757 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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Let me just put on the record some of the feedback that has recently come back, particularly from a roundtable forum that our shadow spokesman on sport and recreation, Mr Doszpot, and I held recently in Tuggeranong. There were about eight clubs represented. The comments that came from that were generally all the same, mainly focused around the quality of the playing surfaces; the cleanliness and the ill repair of the clubhouse, canteen facilities and changing room facilities that are available; and some of the issues surrounding line marking. I know that Mr Doszpot is very passionate about issues surrounding the use of diesel fuel on our playing surfaces: it causes irreparable damage, and many of the clubs are experiencing injury to some of their top-level players simply because of the uneven nature of the ovals once it has been used for successive seasons.
Let me talk about some of the facilities in particular. Calwell and the Kambah playing fields experience excessive overuse, particularly during the winter months. That is as a result of the closure of a number of facilities down in Tuggeranong that are no longer used for sport and rec on a weekly basis as they used to be. These ovals, particularly Kambah and Calwell, are now being overused; and, come the end of the winter playing season, there are large sections of turf missing—divots—particularly on the soccer pitches. The nature of soccer is that it is fairly aggressive in specific sections of the pitch, particularly the centre and the goal squares; by the end of the winter playing season, there is no grass left there.
Another issue that these clubs identified was the outdated nature of the lighting that is available in some of the suburban fields. They are paying fees to hire the ground of a weeknight. They are paying additional fees for the use of the lights. But the lights only throw light, if they are lucky, over half the field. In some instances, it is about a third of the playing field, which means that much of the playing surface is unusable for weekly training, let alone running evening or night matches.
Let me go to the changing rooms and the toilet facilities. I know that members of the Tuggeranong Knights club came to me and said that it took near on six months to get toilet seats installed on the toilets in the changing room facilities that they use at the Gordon playing fields. Mawson and Calwell have also highlighted issues. I know that one of the clubs mentioned that they have got a persistent leak that comes through the skylight into the canteen area. There is mould that surrounds the skylight directly above where the food preparation area is. In an attempt to meet all the new food-handling guidelines that have been imposed by the current government, they now are very rarely able to use the canteen facilities, simply because of the mould and the asbestos flaking from the ceiling.
Other issues, such as disability access to many of the ovals, leave a lot to be desired, particularly around the Mawson playing field. I know it is not quite in my electorate, but it is bordering, and many of my constituents from the southern Woden suburbs frequent these playing fields.
At the end of the day, the clubs are fairly happy to pay the fees that they pay so long as the services that they are receiving in return are well maintained and are adequate and fit for purpose. But, particularly in the Tuggeranong area, clubs are currently
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