Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

State Bowls Centre given to flawed Darebin bid

News Release - 22 March 2001

The City of Darebin won the State Bowls Centre bid despite being strongly criticised by the State Government’s own bid consultant, and the bid appeared to have been won by Darebin because the State Government was not prepared to find the money needed for an eastern suburbs centre, the Member for Box Hill, Robert Clark, said today.

Whitehorse Council withdrew its bid last December because it could not afford the large financial contribution which the State Government was insisting the Council provide to the $8 million centre proposed for Sparks Reserve in Box Hill.

This led to the eastern suburbs missing out on the Centre, which is to host the 2006 Commonwealth Games bowls, despite the Labor Party having made an election promise to locate the Centre in the eastern suburbs.

A circular issued by Darebin Bowls Club to its members reported that the Government’s bid consultant had “identified that the [Darebin] site is poorly located for major events in terms of transport access, lack of street frontage, and lack of close visitor accommodation and entertainment areas”.

The circular also reported that “In addition the State and National Bowls Associations have indicated that they are unwilling to endorse the site due to difficulties in your proposal…”.

Mr Clark said this was clear evidence that cost was a key factor in the Government going for the $3.6 million Darebin bid, rather than because the bid gave the best outcome.

“Labor promised the bowls venue for the eastern suburbs, Whitehorse Council put forward the only eastern suburbs bid and one which would have provided a first class bowls centre for Victoria, and yet the Government was not willing to provide the funds needed,” Mr Clark said.

“It was absurdly unfair to expect Whitehorse Council to provide more than $5.5 million towards the Centre compared with the State Government’s $2.5 million, when this was a centre for the whole State and for the Commonwealth Games.

“However, the Government was not prepared to increase its contribution when it became clear that Whitehorse Council could not afford to continue with its bid, but instead went for a flawed and scaled down outcome at Darebin.

“The Government has obviously done its calculations and decided that it doesn’t care about the eastern suburbs enough to find the money needed to keep its promise.

Mr Clark said that the broken promise had caused enormous difficulties for the Box Hill Bowls Club, which faces a doubtful future when it loses land for road widening for the Box Hill tram line extension.

“If the Government had said in 1999 that it was not prepared to spend enough to make the Whitehorse bid viable, Box Hill Bowls Club would have had 18 months to find another solution. Instead it has put enormous time and effort into a bid that was doomed to failure,” Mr Clark said.

Mr Clark called on the Minister to meet urgently with representatives of Whitehorse Council and local bowls clubs. Mr Clark said the Minister for Sport and Recreation, Justin Madden, must either show that all proper processes were followed and justify his decision, or else reverse it.