CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
WHAT one federal government giveth, another taketh away.
The Serbian Sports Centre had all but spent a $150,000 federal grant promised last year to fix several hazards at its popular Perry Road facilities before being jilted by a new government months later.
The grant, under the Building Multicultural Communities Program, was confirmed in a letter-of-offer by then Multicultural Affairs Minister Kate Lundy in August.
But then there was the September federal election.
The government was replaced, the multicultural affairs ministry disappeared, the program slashed and the grant offer withdrawn by the Department of Social Services in December.
Centre president Bob Stojanac said the funding was for installing floorboards for the basketball court, fixing the indoor court’s leaking tin roof and replacing its leaking LPG-cylinder with a natural-gas street connection – repairs that the volunteer-run club could not otherwise afford.
Mr Stojanac said he wanted to make the community hub safer for about 1000 visitors and members of all ages and 20 nationalities.
When it rains, the basketball court’s slippery painted concrete is even more treacherous under the dripping ceiling.
Basketball is then cancelled out of fear of injury to players – some as young as five.
Mr Stojanac said he’d been advised not to talk on his mobile phone next to the club’s leaking LPG supply.
To him, the centre is a community hub – the home of Springvale White Eagles soccer club – that provides soccer fields, free Friday night music for the elderly and basketball.
He said it also provided informal settlement and employment services for a host of low-income and unemployed visitors, and “keeps kids off the street”.
“When we got that letter (of-offer) everyone in our community was over the moon. Nothing like that had happened before. We hadn’t accepted a single dollar of funding from any government – local, state, federal – before.
“Tony Abbott said he’s the Prime Minister for Infrastructure. That hurt me when I heard that.”
Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus wrote to Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews in November to clarify the centre’s funding offer. He is yet to receive a reply.
“It is wrong that the Serbian Sports Centre should now be disadvantaged by Tony Abbott’s cruel and unnecessary cuts to multicultural funding.
“I call on Kevin Andrews, to honour the budget commitment made to our local Serbian community.”
Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria executive director Ross Barnett said he knew of at least six groups in Victoria who had been jilted.
Reportedly the government has cut $11.5 million from the scheme in 2013-14.
It didn’t comment last week on the extent of cuts nor how many of more than 400 applicants had their offers withdrawn.
Mr Stojanac, however, said there was a cost to his reputation and to traders he’d organised to do the works.
“They think I’m a liar,” he said.
“We’re very, very disappointed. It’s un-Australian and a political decision.”
