This speech was delivered in Parliament on Thursday 10 April 2014

The value and importance of the community winter sport season

HON PETER KATSAMBANIS (North Metropolitan) [5.17 pm]: I would like to take the opportunity as we move into the short break for the Easter period to recognise the fact that over the next few weeks, the winter sport season will commence.

By that, I do not mean the professional sports that tend to blur the lines between summer and winter; I mean the lifeblood of many of our communities across this state—the winter sports at a community level.

We all know that participation in sport leads to more active lifestyles and that, in turn, leads to healthier and happier lives for everyone in our society. Participation should be encouraged in every age group, from children to young adults and even to veterans who play in the veterans’ competitions.

The more active we stay, the healthier we remain and the better off we will be as individuals and as a society as a whole. Right across Western Australia in the metropolitan area, in regional towns and in small rural areas, thousands upon thousands of people will participate in sport over the winter season. I am proud to be a member of a government that assists people to participate in this very important activity and helps them to stay fit and healthy.

We know of the success of the KidSport voucher program over the past four years. More than 30 000 vouchers have been given to kids across the state. Intriguingly and interestingly, more than half those vouchers have been provided to children who have never been registered with a sporting club before.

It is wonderful that those children are given the opportunity to participate in team sport for the first time because it provides them with not only health benefits, but also camaraderie and all the fun people have in playing team sport.

In February this year, the government announced a series of major sporting facility grants. In the region that I represent, $2.4 million was provided across the Cities of Wanneroo and Joondalup to help fund new major sporting facilities in those areas. That funding is very welcome and it is being matched with funding from local government and community groups. It will provide much-needed facilities for people of all age groups to continue to participate in sport.

In the last couple of weeks, the government also announced the Supporting Community Sport initiative, which has two limbs to it, both of which address some of the needs that sporting clubs tell me are really important for them. One is to provide funding to assist young athletes to travel so that they can attain representative experience. The tyranny of distance, unfortunately, still haunts Western Australia. When young people reach the pinnacle of their sport in their age group and are selected at representative team level, it is a wonderful achievement, but sometimes it comes at a great cost to their family and local sporting club. Therefore, the government is actively assisting with that by providing some funding assistance for travel.

The second area that the government is assisting with is providing funding to sports clubs to upgrade their shared sporting equipment, be it footballs, netballs, nets, cricket bats or whatever is required, which cost local sporting clubs a lot of money to provide. The government is assisting with that, which is great.

Through these contributions, the government is making its own effort, but more important are the efforts of the thousands and thousands of volunteers—parents and supporters of these clubs—who make the clubs tick. People have to mark the lines, manage the teams, man the canteen, cook the sausages and perform all those tasks that are too often taken for granted. Tonight I give a big shout out to all those volunteers in community sporting groups who are the lifeblood of their clubs and help players of all ages get onto the field and enjoy their sport.

This year, I will reacquaint myself, after many years, with Auskick, the junior Australian football program that my eldest son went through many, many years ago. My youngest son is now about to kick off at Whitfords Junior Football Club, and I again look forward to kicking off as a parent and helping out where I can with Auskick. I know that for many parents it means a very early Friday night so that we are ready to go at eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, which is a good thing too. I will continue the role that I have spoken about in this place before as club patron of Wembley Amateur Football Club. As members can see, I already have my supporter’s shirt for the Wembley Amateur Football Club. The season starts —

The PRESIDENT: That was not a Collingwood shirt, was it?

Hon PETER KATSAMBANIS: It is a black-and-white shirt, Mr President. Very proudly, Wembley Amateur Football Club are magpies, just like Collingwood Football Club, but this is about community sport and local sport.

I congratulate everyone at Wembley Amateur Football Club. It shows what a strong community can do. I congratulate the new president, Chris Shine. I wish the league team, with its new coach, Tim Noakes, all the best for the season. I wish the volunteers all the best as well. I will continue to sponsor the club’s volunteer recognition program because, again, I think it is important to recognise those people who go above and beyond. 

Most importantly, I want to put on the record my appreciation of and support for a wonderful new initiative that Wembley Amateur Football Club has undertaken to create a brand-new integrated football team, which will allow people of all abilities to play football, some of them for the first time. Others who live in the local area and have had to travel all over the metropolitan area, with their family’s support, to get a game of football will be able to play locally.

I particularly want to commend last year’s president, Alastair Mackenzie, who has undertaken the role of coordinator and manager of the integrated team, for championing this cause and making it a reality. I will continue to go to the club at every opportunity to help out. But, my goodness, the people who put in to make this a reality deserve our congratulations and support. Every community sporting group across this state also deserves our support.

I wish all the participants and all the helpers and assistants in all of the various sporting groups across Western Australia a very successful winter season.