Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Bendigo Spirit, our basketball team, has gone back to back in the Women's National Basketball League championships. They won their grand final on Sunday, 9 March. My home town of Bendigo was proud to host our second WNBL grand final. For the second straight season, the Bendigo Spirit met the Townsville Fire and for the second straight season Bendigo Spirit beat the home team of the member for Herbert, the Townsville Fire.

During the last sitting week in this very chamber the member for Herbert and I had a spirited exchange on whose team would win the grand final. In that good spirit and goodwill I have a shirt for the member for Herbert, a championship shirt from Bendigo highlighting how we are again national champions. I am sure he will wear that shirt with pride.

Every team of champions needs an opposition, a team that will try to match their greatness. The match was in fact a fantastic competition of skill, spirit and team effort. The Townsville Fire brought out the best in the Bendigo Spirit and we had to play well to get the great win. With four-time Olympian and Bendigo captain Kristi Harrower, superstars Kelsey Griffin, Kelly Wilson and Gabrielle Richards taking a lead, Bendigo Spirit rose again to win the grand final. Kristi and the team are fantastic role models for the young in our community. For days and weeks and months our youngest community members will continue to bounce balls, play the game of their heroes and pretend to be their favourite Spirit players. Just a few days after young Ralph, a boy from my electorate, was playing basketball with his brother and proudly said that when he grows up he is going to play for the Bendigo Spirit. His mother, brother and I had a slight giggle at that. His brother responded with 'You can't, silly, you're a boy and it's a girl's team.'

Our young people do not distinguish between local sporting heroes, men or women, yet there are still a lot to do with regard to professional sport and women's pay rates. Much still needs to be done to achieve pay equity in the area of professional sport. Women are still paid significantly less than men when it comes to sport. In basketball, the salary cap for a male team is up to $800,000 a year where the average player in the women's basketball equivalent is between $30,000 and $40,000. As some players say, this is barely enough to pay expenses. I also note that it is the rate of the minimum wage in Australia. Things are slowly changing and with continued wins like that of Bendigo Spirit I am sure they will continue to change in the future.

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