Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to praise Knox Basketball Association, who are from the suburb of Boronia in my electorate of La Trobe. They are doing a fantastic job and I am very keen to help them secure federal funding to improve their facilities.

Knox basketball was established in the early 1970s to provide youth in the city of Knox with a sporting and social infrastructure to develop and promote personal, team and social skills in the sporting environment. The association was born at the Mossfield Avenue facility 1974 with an after-school competition. In 1980 its headquarters moved to the three-court facility in Park Crescent at Boronia, which was expanded to six courts in 1989.

The association is run by an army of volunteers, a chief executive officer and four full-time administrative staff based at Knox basketball stadium. The chairman is Bill Fenton; Steve Douglas-Watson is the vice-chairman; Allan Munt is the treasurer; Sue McMillan is the chairperson of the senior Raiders subcommittee; Wayne Caroll is the chairperson of the social club subcommittee; Laurie Joyce is the CEO; Andy Trott is the junior domestic governor; and Marilyn Rosa is the secretary. I congratulate those committee members. They have been doing an amazing job.

To describe Knox by numbers: they have 646 junior domestic teams this season. I will say that again: 646 junior teams. They have 317 senior domestic teams, with teams on the waiting list; 17 junior club teams; 38 junior representative teams; five senior representative teams, including ‘the wheelies’. This involves more than 3,500 volunteer hours and 7,500 players per week. There are school programs participating, with 70 schools seeing more than 5,000 primary school children attending Knox each week.

The mini-Raiders development program has 100 participants aged four to eight years. The ex-hoops development program has 60 participants aged seven to 12 years. The nursery school program has 60 participants aged six years. Recent attendance for the senior representatives’ games has been 1,200 participants. The average number of people attending per week is more than 10,000 and the average number of people attending per year is one million. Six courts are used on Monday, eight courts on Friday, 22 courts on Saturday and 14 courts on Sunday. Knox basketball pays $280,000 to the council for its annual use of the stadium. The annual cost of hire for the competitions is in excess of $150,000.

The most amazing figure I have seen is that more than 60,000 basketball participants live within a 10-kilometre radius of Knox Converse Stadium—and I am sure the member for Deakin, who is sitting beside me, would have a lot of participants in his electorate. The eastern region of Melbourne has the most condensed basketball playing population in the world, which is absolutely amazing. But Knox basketball do have some issues at the moment. Unfortunately, they are going through a process with Knox council regarding their lease and conditions. At the moment, they are paying $10,000 per month for leasing the premises—$127,000 per year. I would like to see the council renegotiate this lease to make it much more fair and equitable. I do not want to bag the council, because I know that councils are trying to do their best.

We had Minister Kemp down recently. He was amazed that Knox basketball was subsidising other council expenditure—they are doing a fantastic job. There are 7,000 participants in Knox basketball. They need to build an additional two to four courts, which would greatly enhance Knox basketball. To my amazement, when I was down there recently for a few games I found that they have no heating or air conditioning. The stadium needs a major upgrade. It is an absolutely vital link for our local community. I urge Knox council to get on board and do the right thing. Other councils in the area are looking after basketball, so why doesn’t Knox council? (Time expired)