MADELEINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE
MEMBER FOR BRAND

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
CANBERRA
TURSDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2020

SUBJECT: The impact of sports rorts on Brand and other communities.

MADELEINE KING, SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRADE: While clubs are getting money to build pools that have already being built, clubs like the Hillman Hornets Cricket Club and the Port Kennedy Junior Football Club are left out in the cold with nothing, they’re not even aware of these funding grants.

These are clubs that have no female changing facilities. The Port Kennedy Junior Football Club, in fact, is thinking it’s going to have to stop its female football program because of the lack of facilities and the lack of lights on their ground, in my hometown and suburbs of Port Kennedy.

This is a disgrace. This is a government that is only working - maybe - only working for half the people. We’ve seen 136 emails go between the Prime Minister’s office to the former sports minister’s office of Bridget McKenzie

It’s a crying shame that this is now what the Government of Australia thinks is acceptable for the people of Australia and the funding of their volunteer and community sporting centres.

Now I say to the hard-working volunteers of the Hillman cricket club and the Port Kennedy junior club and all the other clubs around my district to keep at it, to hold the faith, one day you will have a good government again that might treat all people fairly.

GRETA STONEHOUSE: When you speak to these people from these sporting communities, have they changed their opinion of the Government?

KING: You bet they have. They are gravely disappointed in this Government. They cannot believe that money is just doled out on an invitation-only basis, to only certain parts of the country, yet these hard-working volunteers that have been helping juniors and women get more into the sports of cricket and football and soccer, they can’t believe they are left out and totally ignored by this rotten Liberal Government.

ENDS