Andrew Leigh

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

CANBERRA

SATURDAY, 13 APRIL 2019

SUBJECTS: Labor’s $1 million in funding for the Holt District Playing Fields in Kippax.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks very much for being here today. My name's Andrew Leigh, the Federal Member for Fenner. I’m enormously proud to announce that a Shorten Labor Government would contribute $1 million towards the upgrade of the facilities here at the Holt Kippax District Playing Fields. Playing fields are places where memories are made and friendships are forged. I was talking to my son Theodore on the way over and he was chatting about his favourite sporting grounds. I think we can all remember as kids the importance of those local sporting facilities. 

We've got to keep on upgrading our sporting facilities, making sure that they're prepared for developments like the influx of women and girls playing AFL. The upgrade will help to serve AFL, cricket and rugby league. It will be a vital resource for the community and is part of federal Labor's commitment to improving the quality of sporting facilities. I'll hand over now to Yvette Berry and Gordon Ramsay to say a few words. 

YVETTE BERRY, ACT DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER: Thanks, Andrew. This is a fantastic announcement for sports in the ACT, particularly for women's sport in the ACT. We know that for women and girls that some of the barriers that are in place for them to participate in sport, particularly around that 12 to 17 year age bracket, is around the infrastructure. So in the ACT we've developed female friendly policies around the infrastructure and change rooms and when I've been talking to Andrew Leigh and, and the commitment that the Shorten Labor Government is going to make to women's participation in sport through the commitment of a million dollars for these sports grounds at Kippax Oval, this will make a huge difference for women and girls who want to take up sport, particularly in AFL. We've seen amazing momentum around women's engagement in sport, particularly through the International AFL games, women's AFL. So here we want to continue to build on that by making sure that we can remove as many of the barriers as possible for young women and girls so they can continue to participate in sport as well.

GORDAN RAMSAY, ACT ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's great being here in West Belconnen. West Belconnen is one of the growth areas of Canberra. There’s a significant number of people moving into the area, significant redevelopments that are happening and significant plans for the future. And so the investment here in the playing fields is going to be another way of making sure that the community that is growing here, the community that is moving in, is well supported and is able to build those memories, those connections, that difference and that quality of life that we know that they deserve. And the Shorten Labor Government will be able to help provide. It's great to be able to work in partnership again with federal colleagues knowing that there has been such a strong disconnect between the current Federal Government and the Canberra community and what we can now look forward to with hopefully incoming Shorten Labor Government is a strong connection here for Canberra, the people of Canberra.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] Why particularly here? Is it just because this is a growth area? I'm sure there are other sporting fields around Canberra that will be looking at this thinking ‘hey, we want a million bucks too to upgrade our infrastructure’. 

RAMSAY: Look, West Belconnen is a significant growth area. There's growth happening out in the Gininderra area, that's a really significant area for Canberra as a whole. And what we do know is that this area has a lot of not only young people, a lot of people who are well engaged in sport. It's important to make sure that the facilities that are here are able to be upgraded. We do know that there'll be significant things that are happening around the Kippax precinct as well with the recent announcement that the masterplan for the future as well. That's all gearing up for the fact that this is such a fantastic area in Canberra. West Belconnen, I like to call, is one of the jewels in the crown of the Canberra community and this investment will really help shine that jewel.

LEIGH: Would anyone from the Magpies like to say a few words?

[inaudible]

JOURNALIST: What does it mean to you to have this money going into infrastructure, particularly I guess to the change rooms here as well for you?

JACQUELINE SPENCE: So as we've heard as we've seen nationally, our numbers have just taken off in women's football and that's really been evident here in Belconnen. This will give us an opportunity to enable that growth a bit more, I think. We'll have the facilities to support that.

JOURNALIST: At the moment, what’s it like for you guys playing. Is that an obstacle? Is it a bit of a challenge?  Like, I heard [inaudible] what's it like for women?

SPENCE: I guess game day can be a bit of a tag team where men and women are coming out of the change rooms. Because they are change rooms, there’s people getting changed, that kind of thing. So it can be a bit uncomfortable, awkward at times. Up until now we've made it work, but it would just be really great to have a different facility that we could use.

ENDS

Authorised by Noah Carroll ALP Canberra.