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

First, I congratulate the member for Flynn not only for bringing this motion forward but also for his birthday today. The origin of Rugby League is 1895 in northern England. The genesis of the break between Rugby Union and Rugby League is the fact that the working class people who played what was at that stage rugby league wanted payment at least for troops away on representative tours and for injuries. The ruling body, the Australian football union, in declining their request said, ‘If men could not afford to pay, they shouldn’t play the game at all.’ That was the basis upon which the division of these codes emerged. As the codes divided, some changes in the pattern of play emerged. Rugby League, certainly the working class game, started to establish different patterns of play—playing the ball and things of that nature—and became more of a spectator game as opposed to appealing just to players themselves.

Any organisation that has 100 years of history, 100 years of success, really does need to be recognised. Rugby League in this country does have 100 years of history this year. It has been, since 1908, a significant spectator sport in Sydney and throughout New South Wales and Queensland. I am sure it will catch on at some stage in the other states, but we are still working on that. It is about not only the fact that it has a history but also all of the clubs that go to making that history. The club that I follow—and I know the member for Banks also follows—is Wests Tigers. That organisation is the combination of two teams, the Western Suburbs Magpies and the Balmain Tigers. Both of those teams are federation teams; they both played in the very first year of Rugby League. As a matter of fact, they played against one another in the very first game in 1908, so there was some synergy there when we had this coming together. In any coming together, there are upsides and downsides, but since we won the premiership in 2005 we have thought it was all upsides. It is one of those things that has a lot of history and it is good that we do follow it that way. I liken what occurred in 2005 to what occurred when we had the Olympics in Sydney—the feelgood period that emanated throughout my locality of Campbelltown was sensational. People do look up to these players, and what goes with that is that players have responsibilities as well. It certainly affects the culture of an area and the way a locality thinks about itself.

There are a few other things I should mention. Not all that long ago in this place I spoke about another Rugby League football club that started in 1908—that is, the Campbelltown City Kangaroos Junior Rugby League Football Club. Just down the road from where I live now, they had their 100th anniversary only a few weeks ago. It is a club on the outskirts of Sydney. These days it has about 11 teams; it takes kids from under six to under 15 and it is the genesis of what we all follow in sport. My involvement in Rugby League goes back to when my sons turned six—no, five; they wanted to play in the under sixes. From that stage on—marking lines out on fields, running canteens, being a coach, being a manager and doing all those sorts of things that parents do for their kids to pursue sport—I have to say it was a very good period. A lot of the people we have as friends today are from that group of parents who turned out with their kids, who were doing the very same things we were back then when my boys were six and seven. You do build communities by participating in junior sport.

That is one of the things that I think is very important to remember as we talk these days about childhood obesity and activity in our local communities. It really does require parents to be committed to and involved in kids’ sports. It is not just about sending your children to some form of weekend childminding activity; it is about actually getting involved with them, participating with them and encouraging them. They are not all going to be first-grade players, but kids deserve the chance to go onto the field and enjoy themselves. That is one of the things I think we have done pretty successfully in Rugby League, and I am glad to have had some involvement in it. To all those involved with the Kangaroos football club, I really hope they enjoy their celebrations for the 100-year anniversary of the game. (Time expired)

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