Ms Patten (Northern Metropolitan):
My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Sport. I would like to ask him to get behind the BootsOff campaign to help fund the AFL Women’s league. Whilst I was celebrating yesterday’s historic AFL Women’s draft I was just a little bit disappointed with what then came out about it. Despite the fact that everyone is very proud that we have finally got a professional women’s AFL, the women are being paid $5000 for the whole season while the men are being paid $300 000 on average. That does not include my hero Buddy Franklin, who is on over $1 million. Even the rookies in the men’s AFL are being paid $55 000.
Apart from the pay disparity, the AFL is not even paying for boots or health insurance. These are professional women dedicating their time and efforts. They are elite sportspeople, and we are not even paying for their health insurance in a professional sport such as this. I am not asking for a charitable undertaking. I will quote the AFL themselves. The Age reports that sponsors are clambering to clubs like Collingwood, with Magpies CEO Gary Pert reportedly saying that women’s teams could be a ‘potential juggernaut’. The appetite for women’s teams is so strong that Mr Pert believes some of Collingwood’s major sponsors will be spending as much if not more on sponsorship for the women’s teams as they are on the men’s in the future.
While I believe that this is something that the AFL should be dealing with, I raised this issue with the government the other day in a question on notice. I asked what they were doing about this to encourage more women to play sport and also to help to achieve parity between women’s AFL and men’s AFL. I have to say the response was somewhat underwhelming. They pointed me to an inquiry into women and girls in sport and active recreation.
The action I seek from the minister is that he listen to the BootsOff campaign and help deliver some form of parity, or at least help pay for boots and insurance for the women’s AFL, whether that is through some sort of matched funding or persuading the AFL to help create a fantastic AFL Women’s comp. We know it will be brilliant, but how can you expect elite sportspeople to not even have boots or health insurance and be paid only $5000 when their male counterparts are being paid $300 000?
REPLY:
As with any professional sport, the AFL is responsible for making decisions regarding payment for all of its players. The contracts that the women’s league entered into are commercial contractual arrangements that the AFL has negotiated with the AFL Players’ Association.
The Andrews Labor Government is committed to creating increased leadership and participation opportunities for women and girls in sport and active recreation in Victoria, in partnership with sporting organisations.
The Andrews Labor Government is encouraged by the AFL’s work to date to increase participation by women and girls in sport.
