Tuesday, 31 October 2023

White Flat Oval

Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (17:24): (546) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Police in the other place, and the action that I seek is for the minister to come down to White Flat Oval in Ballarat and inspect for himself the state of play down there. There are a number of issues down at White Flat Oval, which is not too far from Yarrowee Creek in Ballarat. Locals have called it ‘tent town’ because of the number of people that are using the space to put up tents because they cannot find anywhere else to live, which is in itself a terrible situation, and I acknowledge that. But at the same time there is a lot of antisocial behaviour occurring there as well. I have got reports from a number of local user groups of the oval that there are some pretty horrific things happening. There have been reports of young children that have been exposed to by local people living in that place – literally exposing themselves to young kids. It is pretty awful stuff.

The all-abilities football team, which is a mixed-gender team that plays footy on the oval, faced the Cranbourne Eagles in the semifinals in August this year. Whilst they were playing they had abuse hurled at them, and I am not just talking any sort of abuse; this was stuff about rape or murder of them and their families. Think about what impact this is going to have on kids that have intellectual disabilities. It has made them completely afraid of going back near the oval. It is a very, very serious issue. There are other user groups as well, such as the Golden Point Cricket Club – they are looking at whether they stay at the venue or not or whether they move to somewhere else – and the Ballarat Swordcraft group, who do re-enactments of different medieval battles and that sort of thing. They are considering whether they stay there, because they have been similarly abused as well.

It is actually quite a serious issue. I have been down to the site myself and I think there is an issue. I know a lot of local residents have expressed a concern. There have been a number of meetings with local police down there as well, but that really has not resulted in an outcome which has meant that user groups can actually use this space as it was intended, as a sports oval, as a community place where people can feel safe and do not have to worry about their safety. As I said, the action that I seek is that I would like the minister to go down there, talk to the user groups, experience for himself what it is like there and perhaps come up with a solution as to how we could resolve this situation so that everyone gets a good outcome here. At the moment no-one wants to use the oval, because of the antisocial behaviour that is happening, but also there are homeless people that clearly need assistance and are not getting the assistance. I ask the minister to intervene.