Gerald Lynch
Whittlesea council is set to undertake the necessary and proportionate steps towards achieving more gender equitable access and usage of community sports infrastructure, and improved experiences for women and girls when participating in local sport.
The council at its March 19 council meeting, released its draft Fair Access Policy which ensures women have equitable access to sporting infrastructure.
The policy seeks to address known barriers experienced by women and girls accessing and using community sports infrastructure, ensure solutions are developed and implemented, articulate criteria for sports clubs allocations of council facilities, supporting clubs with education and training and aligning with the state government’s fair access road map.
In the Sport Participation Trends Across Victorian LGAS report, Whittlesea ranks 73rd of the 79 municipalities for for women and girls participation in organised sport.
The policy is responding to the Fair Access in Sport Policy Roadmap set out to to support gender equity throughout all facets of community sport, both on and off the field.
From July 1, if a council doesn’t have a fully equitable access policy, it will be ineligible for state government sports infrastructure funding.
Whittlesea acting manager of active and creative communities Andrew George said the policy falls in line with state government’s new funding eligibility and is an integral move for the community,” he said.
“For council, the policy will guide both infrastructure and operational planning… For sporting clubs, we will require clubs using council facilities to undertake training and gender equity audits,” he said.
Mr George said council isn’t just adopting the policy to tick a box and thinks the policy’s comprehensive nature should result in Whittlesea rewarded with a good level of infrastructure funding.
“The policy we have in place goes above and beyond a template policy… actually working with our clubs to drive participation, which is the main evaluation criteria for this funding, will help our chances to receive that type of funding,” he said.
Administrator Peita Duncan said the drafting of the policy was a step in the right direction.
The draft plan is open for community consultation until April 30 and Ms Duncan said she is looking forward to seeing the response of the community.
“I’m particularly interested to hear from our youth council and their feedback… when the 2023 state of play survey was taken… Ninety per cent of women think gender equality in sport is still an issue.”
“We’ve got some ways to go across the state… but keen to see what the community has to say (about the policy).”
Details: engage.whittlesea.vic.gov.au/fair-access
