Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to get an opportunity to speak on the Paralympic team. I think that the Paralympians are a tremendous asset to Australia, but they are also an extraordinarily important example to all Australians with any disability at all of the opportunity to overcome hurdles in their lives and achieve great things for themselves, for their communities, for their country. While I am a great fan and supporter of Olympians and the great work they do as tremendous sportspeople, I think it takes a very special kind of person to have a setback either through injury or from birth and be able to gather the wherewithal to make themselves into the kind of sportsperson who can represent their country and either win medals or compete in the Paralympics.

Australia has a very proud record at the Paralympics. Governments of all persuasion—Liberal, coalition and Labor—have supported Paralympic teams. I want to take this opportunity to place on record some of the achievements of people from my own electorate of Sturt, and one in particular, who competed in these games in London. There were three Paralympians from my electorate: Felicity Johnson, Libby Kosmala and Esther Overton.

Felicity Johnson is a 22-year-old from Kensington Park. She became one of South Australia's golden girls of the velodrome along with Stephanie Morton, who is not from my electorate, winning gold in their first event, the women's individual B one-kilometre time trial. She came ninth in the women's individual B pursuit. She is impaired visually, from macular degeneration which she acquired at birth. She is a great example to all South Australians and all of those with a visual impairment.

I would also like to recognise Esther Overton. Esther Overton is also 22. She is a swimmer from the Enfield club. She was placed fifth in the final of the women's 50-metre backstroke S2 final. She has a joint fusion acquired at birth. It is a congenital disease called arthrogryposis multiplex. She has gone on to represent her country as well and achieve great things for us as a nation.

There were many other South Australians who competed in the Paralympics, but one of those I would particularly like to note, and that is Libby Kosmala. Libby Kosmala would be very well known to all South Australians because in London she competed in her 12th Paralympic Games. Libby Kosmala has spina bifida, acquired at birth. She is now 70 years old, and she has been competing in shooting over the course of 12 Paralympic Games. She is a mother and, with this birth defect, she has raised her children. In these games she placed eighth in the finals of the women's R1 10-metre air rifle standing SH1 and 24th in the mixed R3 10-metre air rifle prone qualifications.

Not only has Libby Kosmala been a great competitor but she has been a very outspoken advocate in South Australia and nationally for people with a disability, people in a wheelchair and people with spina bifida. I have known her for a very long time. Her children went to my school, Saint Ignatius, in South Australia. I have always regarded her as something of an inspiration. I believe this is her last Paralympic Games, so I want to place on record to Libby Kosmala and her family our gratitude as South Australians for the tremendous example she has shown.

See this speech in context