JUSTIN REEVES:
I would just like to thank you all for attending today and welcome to the site of the Kennedy Community Centre, which is the future home of the Hawthorn Football Club and the many community programs that we’re involved in. I’d like to first begin today by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land that we meet on here today and we really build our future and I’d like to pay my respect to their leaders, the people that have been here before and the people who will come in the future, we pay our respect right through this project and make sure that we do the right thing and create a real impact on this site and pay our respects all the way through that.
Firstly I’d like to hand over to the Deputy Prime Minister, the Honourable Michael McCormack, who is pleased to kick us off today, so thanks Michael.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Today, $15 million of Federal Government money going to the mighty Hawthorn Football Club. Not just the men’s club, but also the women’s club. And I’m really pleased and I’m going to talk about her first, Bec Goddard. She coached the Adelaide women’s team to the AFLW Premiership and certainly football is not just about men, it’s also about women, it’s also about girls, it’s also about community. And that’s what Hawthorn is, it is a community family club. Always has been, is now, always will be.
I do pay my respects to the Indigenous custodians of the land on which we meet. This is a fabulous facility, there is so much potential here.
I acknowledge too, Jeff Kennett and his drive and his determination and his passion. And not just for Hawthorn and not just for Victoria, but for community. It is all about local and I’m really pleased to be here with Josh Frydenberg, the Treasurer of Australia and Gladys Lui, the Local Member, now they are, let’s forgive them, they are Carlton supporters. Now Carlton of course, next season will be 16 years into their three year plan and I appreciate that Carlton are trying to strive to be just like Hawthorn, a Premiership winning outfit. I will acknowledge that Carlton has won probably more Premierships than the Hawks, but you know what, we’re coming, we’re coming and with facilities like this, it’s going to make Hawthorn’s quest for community greatness even stronger.
Because this is not just about winning Premierships, it’s also about involving community into what is a great concept. And the Federal Government always backs great concepts and this is indeed a community facility and it won’t be just here for football, it will be here for the local south-east community because the Liberals and Nationals, we believe in community, we believe in local efforts and local delivery for local people. And I’m sure that the growing suburbs here are going to embrace and welcome the Hawthorn Football Club.
One last little plug, Luke Breust. And I know he’s my favourite Hawthorn player, because he comes from the Riverina and if you come from the Riverina in south-west New South Wales, you’re alright, you’ve got to be alright. And Luke has just come back home, his pre-season training has been on the chase bin, following around his father Allan, a former goal kicker in the Riverina, doing the harvest and he tells me he’s lost a bit of weight. That’s how you do pre-season training, you get out in the bush and you help dad with harvest.
I’ll invite Josh Frydenberg to say a few words.
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well thank you Deputy Prime Minister for coming to the home of football, here in Victoria. It’s great to have you. To former Premier and Hawthorn President, Jeff Kennett, thank you for the invitation. To my colleague, Gladys Liu, to Dave Hodgett, to Bec Goddard, thank you and Justin and the rest of the Hawthorn family for inviting us to this wonderful, wonderful site that is going to become the scene of a great community facility.
Well, yes I am a Carlton supporter, but I grew up admiring the Hawthorn greats. Dipper, lethal Leigh Matthews, Knights, Brereton, Dunstall, they’re household names across the community as well as more recent stars like Crawford and Hodge and many others and Breust and many others. And when I grew up, I was watching them as co-tenants at Princess Park and then obviously at Waverly. But now is the time for the Hawthorn family, the Hawthorn Football Club to get a new facility and this is it, a $100 million endeavour designed to strengthen the local community in so many ways, not only is it going to be a sporting facility, it’s going to become an educational facility, it's going to have community spaces and it’s going to have an administrative centre as well. It’s going to support jobs and support economic growth across the state at a time when we need it but also as Bec has been talking about, it’s going to be the home of Hawthorn’s female team. And there are so many kids coming up through the system and they will be able to use this facility to hone their talents and then hopefully to ultimately walk on the G on Grand Final Day.
So it’s great to be here, the Morrison Government’s making a $15 million commitment. It’s obviously partnering with the philanthropic sector, hopefully with local government and other governments to support this project. But Jeff, thank you for the invitation to be here, congratulations on the vision, this certainly is going to be a great community facility for the people of the south-east.
JEFF KENNETT:
Deputy Prime Minister, Michael, to Josh, David Hodgett, to you Mr Mayor, Mayor of Kingston, Councillors, to Bec, to Gladys, to my board members, ladies and gentlemen. Today is a wonderful day, firstly because we all got up, right? And living is far preferable to anything else. But we have been working on this project for three years. And to now to have the Federal Government support after a lot of scrutiny by the offices of the various departments federally and work by our offices, Tim and my very, very good lady friend there who has been working with the offices of all the departments. This is in one sense a continuation of the culmination of our commitment to this part of the City of Melbourne and the south-eastern suburbs. So when we today thank the Federal Government, we’re also doing it on behalf of the community in the south-eastern suburbs. So many other areas of Victoria get attention, but increasingly, this is where he population growth is occurring and to provide this growing population with community facilities along the lines we’re able to do in partnership with them is for us a great honour. Because we’ve always been a family club. We’re extending our facilities to our family in the south-east. And we thank the people who have been associated in working with us to get to this stage. One of the important things about today’s announcement, and we thank again the Feds for their recognition of what we’ve done, is this isn’t just about public monies. The Hawthorn Football Club will not only match but will exceed the very generous support we’re getting from the Commonwealth and I’ve always believed if you’re going to use public monies for community good, then the community organisations that seek that support should be able to raise money and put money in themselves. So in doing that, we are able to advance the size of the community facilities that we're able to offer for the long term. So this is for me, for us at Hawthorn, for this community, I hope for council as well, a very important recognition of where people come together, not just for Hawthorn, not just for the community here, but for the partnership, the family that exists here in the south-eastern suburbs.
Now, if I may just one other thing I had an introduction today to the new deputy mayor of Kingston. Now I don't want to point him out but he's over there in the grey shirt, the woolly hair. He's 26 years of age. He's just been elected to Council. He's already been thrown in at the deep end. But, that to me is so exciting that young people are accepting responsibility for their communities and participating. I wish you all the very best I'm going to follow your career very, very closely. And I hope you'll remember today because today is a symbol of when the federal government, a football club, and a local community are working very closely together. And when they work closely together, the strength of the community is strengthened. It's not just about Hawthorn. It's not just about kids. It's about the community that you represent and that we all represent. Thank you Deputy Prime Minister, to you Josh, to the people in Kingston, to the teams of people carried by board, the councillors, thank you. Thank you on behalf of those who will use this facility for very many years to come. Now, I think it's my great pleasure to introduce to you, Bec Goddard. Bec is the coach of our VFLW team and we hope before too long our AFLW team. We are being discriminated against at the moment by the AFL, but I ask you not to repeat that – or even report that. (Laughter)
But Bec is going to be leading up a team of people who happen to be women. We will be the first club with a women's team, which is entirely coached by women who have been selected on merit. And while a lot of attention is paid to the gender, we at Hawthorn again as part of our family concept, pick people on the basis of the skills that they offer. And we are very excited about what Bec is doing but importantly what her team are doing. So can I introduce you to now the coach of the next VFLW premiership team.
BEC GODDARD:
That was quite an introduction. You know, I remember, not too long ago time in my coaching career where I would turn up to training at a ground that actually looks already like this grass. And part of warm up was to chase the cows off the oval so the women's team could get on and start football training. And then when the light when the sun started to go down, we'd all have to bring our cars around the oval and turn the lights on high beam just so we could finish the session. And so, to be here now, many years later, in a role as head coach of the women's team and hopefully soon we’ll have an AFLW team is so important. It shows how women are valued at Hawthorn, it shows what this will do for the community. You cannot put a price on diversity, and I'm so proud to be here today and be a part of that. Thank you very much to the government for your support and understanding the value that this will bring to the footy club.
GLADY LIU:
It’s great to be here with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Treasurer and thank you Jeff, the president of the Hawthorn football club. The reason why I'm here is because I've got the Box Hill Hawks, working very closely with them. And before I got elected, I had the privilege to be the AFL multicultural ambassador for four years, and I know football is the best game to bring people together, whether it's boys, girls, men, women, whatever background it is the best thing to do, and that's why I'm always behind football, and I want everyone to play football.
QUESTION:
Treasurer, how concerned are you by China’s suggestion that $700 million worth of Australian coal is being held up in ports due to environmental quality faults?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Well again, our coal, like our agricultural produce is world class and that is why Australia has been supplying reliably for a long period of time the Chinese economy. Whether it’s our agriculture, whether it’s our resources and we’ll continue to do so. Where there are some of these trade related challenges, we’ll take them up bilaterally as well as multilaterally as appropriate and that will obviously, hopefully ensure that our coal is delivered into the Chinese ports.
QUESTION:
So is it a concern for you though?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look, there have been some challenges, there’s no secret of that, on the trade side with China recently. But as I said in a speech recently, as the Prime Minister has said, as Marise Payne, the Deputy Prime Minister and others have continuously said, we’re ready to engage in a respectful mutually beneficial dialogue with China. It is a very important relationship as a two-way trading partner, it does have challenges from time to time. We’d like to work through those.
QUESTION:
On the super guarantee, when will you make a decision?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
We’ll make a decision about that before the legislated increase takes affect which is mid next year. I just want to emphasise the report, the Retirement Income Report, which is 650 pages in length is a very important fact based, evidence-based report. It has a lot to say, not just about the superannuation guarantee, but also about the importance of home ownership, which is something that the Morrison Government is absolutely focused on increasing whether it’s through the HomeBuilder scheme, whether it’s through the First Home Super Saver Scheme, whether it’s through the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. So we’re focused on building home ownership which is important to retirement incomes. When it comes to the legislated increase on superannuation guarantee, I note it’s not just the retirement incomes review that Mike Callahan and his independent panel of experts which has called it into question. But it’s also been the Grattan Institute, the Reserve Bank and other independent causes.
QUESTION:
Can you confirm that public broadcasters will be included in the media code and have you come to a decision on AAP?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Look I won’t provide a running commentary on the code, other than to say an enormous amount of work has been done by the ACCC. It was a long and world leading inquiry that they undertook into the digital platforms and they provided advice to government. Originally it was going to be a voluntary code, we’ve since announced that it will be a mandatory code. It’s our intention as a government to introduce the legislation before the end of the sitting fortnight.
QUESTION:
Nothing on AAP?
JOSH FRYDENBERG:
Again, I’m not going to say which particular parties are governed by it. That will be revealed when the legislation goes before the Parliament.