Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to join my colleagues in congratulating the 2012 Australian Paralympic team for its spectacular success at the recent 2012 London Paralympic Games. This year we sent our biggest team to date to the Paralympics—161 athletes— who brought home 32 gold medals, 23 silver medals and 30 bronze medals. Our athletes put on a magnificent performance in London. The Australian team was placed fifth on the overall medal tally, with 85 medals in total and a raft of world records to their name. There was a large contingent of athletes from my state of Queensland and they can make claim to 20 medals in the final tally—seven gold, seven silver and six bronze. But even more impressive than those figures were the incredible sporting moments and inspirational performances that we saw during the competition, which were cheered on by all Queenslanders.

We saw world records smashed when Brenden Hall took gold in the 400-metre freestyle, gold in the four-by-100 metre freestyle relay and bronze in the four-by-100 metre medley relay, while fellow swimmer Blake Cochrane broke his own world record with gold in the 100-metre breaststroke. Queensland's Chris Bond, Cody Meakin, Ben Newton, Cameron Carr and Ryan Scott were also instrumental in securing gold for the men's wheelchair rugby team. We also had 18 Queensland athletes make their Paralympics debut in London alongside champions like Rich Pendleton, Tige Simmons, Carlee Beattie and Simon Patmore. I would also make to special mention of Nicole Esdaile, an athlete from The Gap in my electorate of Ryan. Nicole represented our country in goal ball, a sport designed for athletes with vision impairment. Nicole was a member of the first Australian team to qualify in the sport at the Paralympics since 1996.

The performance of all of our athletes was exception and the people of Ryan in Queensland are extremely proud of the team's efforts and achievements. In honour of their success Brisbane City Council's Lord Mayor Graham Quirk presented the Australian Paralympians with the keys to the city. I would also like to acknowledge the success of the Paralympic movement in fostering a unique spirit of competition and friendship among people with disability over the past six decades. Our Paralympians are truly inspirational people both on and off the sporting field. The Australian Paralympians are outstanding ambassadors for Australia and continue to be so after the Paralympic Games. I congratulate them for inspiring a new generation of Australians with a disability to reach their full potential.

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