Picture: TREVOR JACKSON
MEMBER for Barker Tony Pasin has lashed out at Basketball Australia for throwing the Mount Gambier Pioneers basketball team’s future under a cloud.
The Liberal MP fired a shot directly at the national basketball regulator during a recent sitting of Federal Parliament as uncertainty over the team’s future continues.
“It is an ill-thought-out decision by Basketball Australia and the consequences are reverberating throughout the Mount Gambier community and the state,” Mr Pasin said.
“Quite frankly, I’m disgusted by the actions of Basketball Australia. They should think more about grassroots basketball in Australia.”
Mr Pasin said the Pioneers recently won their third championship in four years in the 2016/17 season.
“Their fifth consecutive conference crown and third championship win in four years places them as arguably the most successful South Australian sporting team competing on a national stage,” the backbencher said.
“After such a strong record of success and with a proud and parochial South East community backing them, it was devastating to learn Basketball Australia had made the decision to abolish the South East Australian Basketball League, or SEABL, in which the Castec Rural Pioneers of Mount Gambier play.”
Mr Pasin told his parliamentary colleagues the Pioneers were the only team in South Australia at this level.
“I should also point out they are the only sporting team in my electorate that plays on the national stage,” Mr Pasin said.
“Of course, this is one level below the Australian national league. There is no other state-based league to join for the Pioneers in South Australia.”
The SEABL encompasses games played in Mount Gambier and throughout Victoria, Tasmania, North Albury and Canberra.
“The decision to abolish the league was made by Basketball Australia in early August, with no plan around what would happen to those teams based outside of Victoria,” the Liberal MP said.
“Victorian teams will be invited to enter the newly established Victorian league, but there remains uncertainty about what will happen to teams such as the Pioneers.
“I understand there are three Tasmanian teams and an Albury-Wodonga team that are also unsure of their future.”
He described the Pioneers as a huge part of his community.
“The uncertainty around their future is affecting the whole community, from the leadership of the club to the players, the volunteers and the supporters,” Mr Pasin said.
“As the Pioneers are an integral part of encouraging talented South Australian basketball players to move through from grassroots sporting clubs into the national league, I suspect it will have far-reaching consequences for the game in South Australia.
“Just as we do not want talented South Australians moving interstate for jobs, we do not want to see our sporting talent leave either.”
He said the Pioneers had been responsible for seeing “very talented” young Australians move from Adelaide to Mount Gambier to play and they had stayed permanently.
“It is a great thing for a region like mine and many regions around the country,” Mr Pasin said.
