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LIBS SURVIVE SWING Wood likely, Broadbent and Hunt returned PAGES 7-9 Wednesday, 6 July 2016
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Basketbrawl By RUSSELL BENNETT MORE than 2000 residents involved in local basketball are facing uncertain futures following a dispute between the Pakenham and District Basketball Association (PDBA) and Cardinia Shire Council. As of last Thursday 1 July, domestic basketball competitions at Pakenham’s Cardinia Life stadium are no longer sanctioned by Basketball Victoria (BV) and not covered by BV
insurance. This means that the level of insurance available to players in regards to injury or loss of wage is lessened. Domestic competitions are also no longer regulated by BV as they are not affiliated with the PDBA, and as a result there would be no official Basketball Victoria referees available for games at Cardinia Life and no Basketball Victoria tribunal available to settle disputes. There aren’t any other stadiums
throughout the shire that have the same capacity of Cardinia Life, and PDBA teams would be left to play at venues such as local schools. “The current situation is that the association is trying to work through the process of managing the basketball competition that’s currently being facilitated out of Cardinia Life - in the best interests of its players, members and the community,” PDBA president Adrian Zemunik said.
“We’re cognisant of the fact that, historically, there’s been very little investment in the sport of basketball from grassroots through to the elite.” The Gazette understands that Cardinia Shire Council makes a profit of at least $500,000 a year out of basketball, and the PDBA sees no more than 0.64 per cent of that despite paying thousands of dollars per year in court hire fees. The PDBA dispute is not with Aligned Leisure, which took over
management of Cardinia Life on 1 July, but rather with the council itself. There will be a PDBA member meeting on Wednesday tonight, 6 July, at the basketball courts of Pakenham’s Beaconhills College campus from 7.30pm to discuss the current situation, while the association has let its members know through social media about the changes to domestic competitions.
Continued on page 4
Underdressed for success By GARRY HOWE RETIRED chief executive Tony Fitzgerald didn’t make a good first impression at Outlook, but he has left a lasting one. The man who hired him to head up what was then known as Minibah back in 1989, re-elected McMillan MP Russell Broadbent, described Tony as “the worst dressed and worst presented applicant I have ever come across”. When he recommended to board members that they take a punt on the badly dressed Bohemian hippy, they thought he was joking. “It was time of turmoil and change in the disability sector and Tony seemed to me just strange enough to pull that off,” he recalled. Twenty-seven years later, at a farewell function in the Outlook Community Centre on Friday night, board chairman Edwin Hume announced that the legacy of Tony’s work would be permanently marked in the social enterprise’s newest venture. The new Outlook environmental and recycling hub being built on eight hectares in Officer will be known as Tony Fitzgerald Enterprise Park. Edwin said Tony had gone on to define Outlook. “What Outlook is today is essentially an extension of Tony - a generous, caring, sensible and successful organisation,” he said.
Tony Fitzgerald accepts the plaque acknowledging that Outlook’s new Officer venture will carry his name. It is being presented by McMillan MP and Outlook life governor Russell Broadbent, Bass MP and life governor Brian Paynter and Outlook board chairman Edwin Hume. “Tony now leaves at the top of his game with Outlook about to embark on significant new challenges including understanding and embracing the NDIS and furthering our social enterprise with
the development of recently purchased land at Officer.” It was the prospect of these new challenges that brought on thoughts of retirement.
“I woke up three months ago and asked myself ‘do I really want to oversee this next phase’, as exciting as it is,” Tony said of his decision. “With the NDIS coming in, we
could go from 450 to 2000 clients and I’m 64 this year. I decided it was the right time to take a step back.”
For more on Tony Fitzgerald’s career, turn to pages 12-13.
Demolish order for protest shelter PAGE 3