Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Drysdale for $5.5m promise alongside Libby Coker

Anthony Albanese has visited the Bellarine on Tuesday afternoon to announce a multimillion dollar cash splash for a local sporting club.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Libby Coker were all smiles on Tuesday afternoon. Picture: Jason Edwards.

The Hawks are flying high after Anthony Albanese visited the Bellarine to commit $5.45m to the upgrade of netball facilities at Drysdale Recreation Reserve.

The Prime Minister was joined by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong and Corangamite MP Libby Coker MP, as well as club representatives and players, for the announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

The funding, dependent of Labor being re-elected at the May 3 federal election, would assist the construction of two new netball courts, competition standard lighting, spectator seating, and upgraded clubrooms.

“I want to see more kids off their phones and onto the sports field, that’s why my government is investing in local community sporting facilities,” the Prime Minister said.

“This is good for our kids and good for the local community.”

Drysdale netballers thank the PM and Libby Coker for the funding pledge. Picture: Jason Edwards.

Ms Coker, who holds Corangamite by 7.6 per cent and is seeking her third term, said it had been a long journey to reach this point.

“Together we’ve worked long and hard to make this happen for Drysdale’s netballers, and I’d like to thank everyone at the club for their work on this project,” she said.

“Community sport brings people together, and these upgrades will provide a modern, safe and inclusive space for the netballers to grow and thrive – it’s an awesome outcome for the Hawks.”

Last year, Drysdale Netball Club’s Sarah Martin was scathing of the courts and lighting, describing both as “terrible”, adding that the water wasn’t drinkable within the clubrooms.

“The court surface and the court conditions, the space between the sidelines and the free space there outside the court footprint, is crap, terrible,” she said.

“The lighting is terrible, it is way below standard but we don’t have any report details available in terms of where it is currently at but we know it is well below the standard.”

Smiles all around. Picture: Jason Edwards.

In February last year, Geelong council announced $50,000 for a lighting infrastructure upgrade at the venue and a further $22,909 for a facility development plan.

Labor’s funding announcement comes a week after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton promised $5m from a Coalition government for the development of a sporting precinct at Devlins Road Reserve.

Located in Ocean Grove’s northern growth corridor, Devlins Road is less than 10km south of Drysdale Recreation Reserve.

On Monday, Liberal Corangamite candidate Darcy Dunstan pledged $2.7m for palliative care facility Anam Cara House should the Coalition form government.

That came a month after it emerged that a $940,000 contribution from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts had been pulled because ACH could not match the funds within the required time period.

Mr Dunstan said in addition to the eight new bedrooms, each with an ensuite, the funding would see the construction of two living areas, a dining room and hydrotherapy bath.

Mr Albanese was in Adelaide earlier on Tuesday to campaign in the marginal seats of Sturt and Boothby, where he announced a re-elected Labor government would spend $150m on a Flinders HealthCARE Centre.

Flinders University, which would match the funding, touted the centre as transforming health care in southern Adelaide.

Originally published as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Drysdale for $5.5m promise alongside Libby Coker