Chris Crewther (Dunkley, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The story of the Frankston Dolphins football club in the VFL is a tale of the survival of the underdog. The club was in a financial disaster, yet it rose again to have its VFL licence reinstated after 12 months of intense lobbying across the Dunkley community.

More recently, I was proud to be with Matthew Guy, Neale Burgess and the Liberal candidate for Frankston, Michael Lamb, when they were first off the mark to announce, at a state level, $650,000 towards television-broadcast-quality lighting at the Skybus Stadium. The same amount was also committed by Frankston City Council and, then, by the state government following Michael Lamb's leadership.

We are already hosting blockbuster games at Skybus Stadium, both in the VFL and the VFL Women's, and new lighting would be of enormous benefit to our teams and fans at Frankston and beyond, and potentially also bring AFL night games to Frankston.

I was recently down there speaking to players at training about what broadcast-quality lighting would mean for them, their club and their community, including, as I said, the potential for both night VFL games and AFL games, supporting our local economy and businesses and aiding regional aspirations. At the moment, I am advocating very strongly to the minister and the Prime Minister about this funding from the federal government, and I'm gathering signatures for a petition that has been met with overwhelming support. Minister McVeigh has been a firm friend to the people of Dunkley in the past and, once again, I will be continuing to work with him to fight for funding for Skybus Stadium lighting.