Recently my local rugby league club of which I am the President, the Macquarie Scorpions Rugby League Football Club, embarked on a project to improve safety in our local community which is the Westlakes Region of Lake Macquarie. The Scorpions are the biggest and most high profile sporting organisation in our region and rugby league is the highest profile sport in the entire Hunter Region.
Sadly, the Hunter Region has one of the highest levels of domestic violence in NSW, so it was a no brainer that our project would be an anti-domestic violence project. We were advised that the NSW Minister for Community Services, Department of Premier and Cabinet and NSW Police were funding a “Let’s Tackle Domestic Violence” campaign that engaged NSW CRL clubs to get the anti-domestic violence message out to communities using the peer group of young men, classic White Ribbon message. All men connected to the Macquarie Scorpions club have signed a pledge and a code of conduct in relation to their behaviour.
The Macquarie Scorpions were chosen as the club to take on the challenge of delivering this message throughout the Newcastle Rugby League (the Real NRL) catchment area which really encompasses most of the Hunter Region. The Real NRL Board got behind us and dedicated round 16 of the competition as the “Let’s Tackle Domestic Violence” round, with the focus on the Scorpions’ home game on Saturday 6 August 2011.
Regional organisations at the sharp end of dealing with domestic violence were invited to the day and set up information centres at the ground as did White Ribbon with Libby Davies, White Ribbon CEO, attending. The NSW Minister for Sport the Hon. Graham Annesley MP, the NSW Deputy Opposition Leader the Hon. Linda Burney MP (Linda was the Minister responsible for implementing this initiative in the previous NSW Government), the Board of the Newcastle Rugby League, major Scorpions sponsors the Toronto District Workers Club and Centennial Coal also attended. The match day sponsor was the Companion Credit Union.
