Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I’ll come to that. Only recently the member for Macarthur decided to take it upon himself to announce policy. His latest policy announcement was that bicycle users should pay either a registration fee or a bicycle levy. I recently took the opportunity to meet with the Macarthur Triathlon Club and its president, Glenn Schwarzel, to discuss what the member for Macarthur was proposing. As this club put to me—and bear in mind that they take people from kids right through to elite athletes—they see themselves having a role in our community but, more than that, they see themselves having a role in encouraging active sport to be adopted by young people. The idea that was advanced by the shadow minister for sport was that we should tax those who decide to go cycling.

If you have a look at the health statistics out there, particularly in the electorate he comes from, as I have done, you will find that New South Wales Health indicates in their report that one in every two people over the age of 16 in the Macarthur region is obese. Regrettably, when they did a weigh-in, they found that it was the second fattest population in Sydney, behind Hawkesbury, with almost 56 per cent of adults tipping in at the higher end of the scale. So, Madam Deputy Speaker, I did get up and exercise this morning, just in case you were inquiring.

The latest attempted policy announcement by the member for Macarthur comes at a very interesting time. He has taken it upon himself to do this after taking what was a very safe Liberal seat with a margin of 11.1 per cent and, with all the effort he has put in it for the last three years, reducing that margin to 0.7 per cent. The first notable thing he did for his electorate was to move some 65 kilometres away from it. He has now been referred to—these are not my words, but I do like them—as the Mayor of Mosman. He seems to think that what is good for the silvertails of the North Shore should be imposed upon the working people of Macarthur. What a shame that is, but this does show the level of commitment he has to the people in his electorate when it comes to kids and sport. (Time expired)

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