Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, if you need a ticket for that special event, which has been sold out, just go see the member for Newcastle! I am sure there is a way in! It gives me great pleasure to be able to speak in this debate. I, too, thank the member for Fraser, who himself is an avid runner and has no doubt had some tutoring from the great Rob de Castella.

When Rob first came to me with this idea—it was when I was Minister for Indigenous Health, in the previous government—I sort of wondered whether or not it was going to work, not because I doubted his dedication, but because the need to be able to mobilise young Australians who hitherto had not been engaged with running, and then have them compete in the New York Marathon, which was the goal, seemed a little far-stretched. But it turned out to be a magnificent objective—a really good goal that now has been achieved by so many.

I want to thank Rob. He has a very good awareness, as you would expect, about the importance of athletics, not only in terms of changing people's lives, in terms of their own self-motivation, but how it can actually change the lives of others around them. I can testify to this, because I know personally of a handful of runners who have run in the marathon project and are graduates of the program. In the first instance I am speaking of Charlie Maher. Charlie is an Aboriginal bloke from Alice Springs, who was, I think, in the first group of runners in the first year to do the project and actually compete in New York. Charlie is a young person, a family man, and a very good all-round sportsman—a great footballer—who turned out to be a very good runner. Not only does he do running, but because he was involved in this program, and because of his other roles, he is now a really strong mentor and leader.

This is true of others who have participated. I know of Caleb Hart and Reggie Smith, both from the local primary school—not the one that I went to, sadly, otherwise they would be down here at St Benedict's—where my partner, Elizabeth, is the deputy principal. They competed and they have done this very hard and arduous thing.

On the weekend of 18 July, the IMP ran a 10-kay anniversary run around the base of Uluru. This is to mark the 30th anniversary of the handing back of the rock. But regularly there is an event. An Uluru run is an annual event as part of the Deadly Fun Run series, which is part of this all-encompassing process that Rob de Castella has formulated about getting people running in the bush—and it works.

I know my time is limited, but before I conclude I would like to table—and I have sought the agreement of the government representative opposite—a list of all the runners over 2012, 2013 and 2014 who are successful graduates of the de Castella marathon project program.

Leave granted.

I want to mention two other runners in particular: Allirra Braun, whose family is very close to me, and Adrian Dodson-Shaw. Adrian is the son of Patrick Dodson, who is an eminent Australian in his own right, and Barb Shaw, who is a very eminent woman and a very strong leader in her own community. Adrian has now competed in the marathon project. You see him on social media, and he is always now talking about the importance of health and leadership and engaging in leadership projects in his own community. He ran the North Pole program quite recently and, unfortunately, today he is laid up with an injury, I am told. But we hope to get him back running very shortly—although Broome is a great environment and I do not think he will have any problem getting motivated.

But what we need to appreciate here is that these young people—all those who have participated—are now seen as role models in their communities and are encouraging others by their very performance to be involved in changing their lives to become healthier and live a more holistic life in terms of their own families and their own communities. This would not have happened without the foresight of Rob de Castella, who needs to be recognised and applauded for what he has done for these young people and for all of us by doing it.

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