On June 11, I moved a motion in the legislative Assembly calling on the government to restore some of Canberra’s dryland ovals as irrigated sportsgrounds to address the sportsground shortage and sportsground maintenance crisis. This motion was developed after listening to the sporting and recreational community at the Canberra Liberals sportsground roundtable held the week before.
We all know the benefits playing sports can give us. Being part of a team teaches our kids important life lessons about effort, teamwork and sportsmanship as well as allowing them to make life-long friends. Physical exercise can help us all age gracefully and live longer and better lives. I know that all members are familiar with these positive outcomes and want to help facilitate participation by providing spaces to play.
Unfortunately, this is not the reality for so many sporting clubs in Canberra today. On June 4 the Canberra Liberals held a sportsground roundtable to hear directly from the community about the state of Canberra’s playing fields. The stories we heard were horrific. Rat and mice infestations, hoons ripping up fields, anti-social behaviour, and vandalism just to mention a few.
The Roundtable also focused on larger structural issues with sportsgrounds in Canberra with a particular focus on safety and capacity. I would like to thank the Minister for attending. The community was appreciative of the bipartisan spirit of the event.
The primary reason I wanted to act so fast after the roundtable to present this motion was safety. Many clubs and volunteers have shared with me that the maintenance level on existing sportsgrounds has made the fields unsafe to play on.
In the last few months Kambah 201, Kambah 204, Calwell 204, Kippax Fields and Watson fields have all been deemed unsafe to play on and have had games called off. It is clear that these fields are being over used, and that is making them unsafe. I believed that the Assembly must move to resolve this issue as quickly as possible to make sportsgrounds safer.
I have heard stories of bruised knees, sprained ankles, parents having to rush their kids to the local gp and people having to press pause on their lives due to a sporting injury. Even a quick glance at most ACT sportsgrounds can reveal uneven surfaces, divots and exposed sprinkler systems.
Another thing I have heard from sports clubs is that they are at or above capacity. That they are having to make difficult decisions about whether they can accept more participants due to lack of facilities. This is not something that clubs should have to worry about.
Canberra’s capacity to provide for sport needs to grow. This means more fields and different types of fields. Passing this motion was the first practical step.
This crisis did not come out of nowhere. It occurred after years of Government inaction. As is mentioned in the motion, the ACT population has grown by over 70,000 people since 2017. That means more players and increased demand for facilities. But in the same time period the amount of available irrigated sportsgrounds in the territory has only increased by roughly two fields according to annual reports.
For all of these reasons and more it is important that we make the most of what we currently have. The ACT Government has identified 14 dryland ovals which can be transitioned into irrigated sportsgrounds. However, they have not provided the community with a plan or timeline of when this will occur. It has been 6 years since the last dryland oval was reactivated and we have seen no further action only hollow promises.
That is why I moved a motion calling on the government to do the following:
- Commit to an accelerated re-activation schedule for the dryland ovals in category 1,
- Include in the schedule plans for community consultation and proper funding
- Publish the Schedule by the 17th of September
- Explore options, where appropriate, to allow for the booking of dryland ovals for training by clubs and junior leagues.
This motion recognises that the current approach to reactivating the category 1 dryland ovals is not good enough. Sporting clubs need more spaces to play. Existing sportsground need the pressure eased on them now. That is why I called on the Government to commit to an accelerated schedule for the reactivation of these fields.
This motion also recognises that these projects work best when the community have a stake in the outcome. When their feedback is able to shape the development to suit their sporting needs. We saw this benefit first hand with the reactivation of Melba 1 and the positive impact this has had for local clubs. The Belconnen sharks’ junior team can now be confident that they have space to train and parents can be confident that their kids won’t be injured by an unsafe field. That is why the reactivation schedule must include plans for consulting with sporting organisations, clubs and the community.
This motion is also about delivering for the community in a financially responsible way. Reactivating dryland ovals will give ratepayers maximum bang for buck. However, the Canberra Liberals do acknowledge that delivering these fields will require an investment. That is why the motion calls on the Government to plan for the necessary spending through existing budget processes.
The clearest messages from the roundtable was the community cannot wait another two years for this crisis to be fixed. They want to know that the Government has a plan to address these concerns. Clubs and associations which are planning for their next sporting season want the confidence to know what spaces will be available and when. That is why the accelerated reactivation schedule should be tabled in this Assembly by the 17th of September. So that people can plan for the future and ensure transparency and accountability.
It is also important that the Government explore measures in the short term to ease the current pressure on sporting fields. One solution is to allow clubs to book dryland ovals where it is safe to do so. So we can provide urgent relief.