Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Vale Phillip Hughes on behalf of the people in the Riverina, not just the cricketing community but all people in the Riverina who have shared the emotional roller-coaster that this nation has been plunged onto in recent days with the tragic death of a great young Australian. As the member for Wannon said, he was a great young country Australian.

The Phillip Hughes story was quintessentially Australian. He was a boy from Macksville who made good but who never forgot his roots, who never forgot where he came from and who never forgot his origins. When he was playing test cricket and one-day cricket for Australia he yearned so often to be back on his father's banana farm or chasing the cattle around and doing all those things that country boys love to do. He is sadly missed by all, not just those who follow sport and who follow cricket. As I say, this has put the country into a state of mourning like we have not seen previously with the death of a sportsman. Paul Taylor's wonderful 'put out your bats' social media campaign has captivated not just people in Australia but people right across the world.

We all love our sport but we should not forget that sport is dangerous. Whilst we mourn the death of Phillip Hughes at the all-too-young age of 25, we should not forget the four female jockeys—Simone Montgomerie, 26; Desiree Gill, 45; Carly-Mae Pye, 26; and Caitlin Forrest, just 19—and the female hockey player, Lizzie Watkins, 24, who have all died since 2012, playing sport. Whilst they all loved doing so, it does bring home the fragility of life. Sport does unite us in a way that nothing else can, and certainly I have seen some wonderful contributions to that effect from this parliament, generally a divided parliament. Indeed, we are all united on this occasion, as we should be.

It has been a time of sadness in the Riverina. Yesterday I attended the funeral of Mark Andrew Cornell, a great mate of mine, a good cricketer, who passed away on 26 November from pancreatic cancer. He fought the good fight against the illness for nine years. His sister-in-law, Colleen Breust, said that one of his great loves, as well as playing Australian Rules for Ungarie, was playing cricket, and his fondest moment was when he and his two brothers-in-law, Chris and Pete, played with him against West Wyalong: they won the grand final as underdogs, in the final overs. The loss of Phil Hughes was not forgotten by those at the funeral yesterday in Wagga Wagga as we celebrated the life of Mark, gone all too soon.

We mourn Phillip Hughes; we mourn the four female jockeys and the hockey player I mentioned earlier; and we mourn Mark Cornell, all of whom are gone way before their time. But they leave an indelible mark on us all. I finish with a statement by Sachin Tendulkar, who said, long before Phillip Hughes died:

I feel when somebody has been playing cricket for a long time, he creates a separate identity for himself.

While Phillip Hughes did not play cricket for a long time, he scored a century, as the member for Wannon pointed out, in just his second test, just like Sir Donald Bradman, and then backed it up with another one in the next innings—the very youngest batsman to ever do that in test cricket history. Phil Hughes did not play cricket for a long time; it was all too short. But he certainly created a separate identity for himself, not just because he has died but because of what he gave to the game and the legacy that he leaves behind.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:0 3

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