Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2023–24

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:35): I stand to speak on the state budget 2023–24, which raises the budget for sporting infrastructure in Victoria. I will particularly talk about a piece of sporting infrastructure that has been overlooked by this government for a number of years – and that is the Shepparton stadium. The Shepparton stadium was built back in 1972. It was a two-court facility, and only one major upgrade has ever occurred, and that was in 1994 when two additional courts were built. This stadium is well past its use-by date. It is not catering for the amount of people that we have playing the sport of basketball in Shepparton. It is certainly not catering for us to attract events and tournaments to Shepparton. Even during the floods when the City of Greater Shepparton wanted to use this stadium as their relief centre, they were unable to do so. It would have been perfect, because it already has showers and toilets and stuff, except the roof was leaking. The roof leaks constantly, and we are forever having to reschedule games elsewhere because of the roof leaking. This facility desperately needs an upgrade.

The City of Greater Shepparton have been advocating for this for some time. I have been advocating for an upgrade to this facility since 2016. The City of Greater Shepparton have it as a high priority on their list of projects, but Basketball Victoria has also identified this. In fact this is the number one infrastructure project for Basketball Victoria’s needs in sporting facilities. The City of Greater Shepparton have had it in their prospectus for funding for some time now. What they are wanting to do is build a new sports and events centre with six basketball, netball and multi-use courts, including a 3000-seat show court; new wet area amenities; an administration hub, entry and cafe; and external works, including a car park. It is a $60 million project; they are asking for $20 million from the state government. This would have a total regional benefit of $68 million. It would create 235 jobs during construction. It is estimated that events it could attract to the town would attract an additional 24,000 ‍visitors annually and 76,000 bed nights annually. It would also equate to approximately $12.3 million per year in visitor spending in our region and help to support 89 jobs ongoing. The business case estimated that around 334 major events have the potential to be hosted in the new stadium in Shepparton.

As I said, I have been raising this since 2016. I have raised it over 20 times, but this government have continued to ignore it. Some local sports identities have started a petition on change.org. In just over 24 hours they have got 863 signatures. I would like to congratulate Jay Bryce and his group, who have stepped up to say, ‘Enough is enough. This facility must be funded.’ They had the whole of page 1 and the whole of page 6 of the Shepparton News yesterday. It was fantastic. They talked about how on the night of the Shepparton Gators Big V grand final in August there were capacity issues where the facility actually reached capacity, forcing hundreds of passionate fans to be turned away on the night. These fans should have been celebrating sporting prowess in our town; instead they were turned away.

Domestically the basketball association is experiencing an unprecedented boom in player participation, with record numbers of players joining our local clubs. However, with the inadequate court availability the Shepparton sports stadium is absolutely stretched to the limit. Junior grades are having to be redirected to the Visy centre, and scheduling constraints are pushing men’s and women’s games to as late as 9:20 pm, which means players are getting home well after 10 o’clock.

Jay Bryce has identified all of these issues. It is a real issue for our town. We need investment in our basketball stadium, and this government must put in the $20 million that is needed to bring the Shepparton sports and events centre to a conclusion.