Bayside Council – in partnership with the Bayside Leader – has launched a campaign to improve conditions for female players on the sporting field.
The Grass Ceiling Campaign kicked off last month and aims to address a lack of female change rooms within the municipality’s
sporting facilities.
Bayside Mayor Felicity Frederico said Council aims to reverse decades of neglect of the needs of female sports players.
“Like many councils across Victoria, Bayside has a deficit of sporting facilities for female players.
“Our sporting pavilions were mostly built 50 years ago when it didn’t occur to governments that sporting facilities might need female change rooms.
“Times have changed and while we have some of the highest participation rates in the country for girls sport, only 15 percent of our sporting pavilions have female change rooms.”
In July this year the Victorian State Government announced a $10 million funding opportunity for clubs across the state wishing to upgrade their facilities.
Councillor Frederico said Bayside is calling for a further commitment.
“While we welcome the Victorian Government’s recent announcement that they would be allocating $10 million for upgrades to female sporting facilities, a new pavilion generally costs more than $2 million. That would cover the costs of four new pavilions for Bayside but what would all the other councils do?
“In the face of rate-capping the cost of upgrading facilities cannot fall to local governments alone.
“It’s time to get real about female sporting facilities and bring things on par with those enjoyed by male players across our state.”
Bayside intends to pursue a $25 million 15-year plan to upgrade 27 pavilions.
“How can we ask our women to be role models when we expect them to always accept second best?” Cr Frederico said.
“We are calling on mums and dads and sports lovers from across Victoria and Australia to join us to ensure that our girls get a fair go.”
