Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the motion before us from the member for Forde, and I thank him for putting it forward. Obviously, I am a Victorian and with that comes the descriptor 'sports-mad'—I will own it, I will wear it; yes, I am a sports-mad Victorian. It is important to note that football in Victoria is the Australian game, while soccer is the world game—or the beautiful game, as many in Victoria call it. As I speak today, I will call it soccer—for my Victorian counterparts, and so that those at home know what it is I am speaking about.

It is true to say that in Victoria and in the electorate of Lalor, in the city of Wyndham and in the city of Hobsons Bay, soccer is an enormously growing sport. It has been embedded in my community for some 40 years in longstanding clubs that are growing and growing. As a teacher, I can tell you that I have watched the development of soccer. I have watched the spontaneous games of soccer take over playgrounds, alongside—what we now often see Victoria; I know that it used to be a rarity—the spontaneous growth also of rugby, along with Australian Rules and cricket for our boys who are mad about ball games on the ovals around my electorate, and in the schools where I have taught. As everybody in this place would know, I am a mad-keen netballer. So I have to take umbrage at the notion that soccer is more popular with girls between six and 13. I found some Roy Morgan research that says that 40 per cent of girls this age are taking part—and I would like to think that 90 per cent of girls at that age are, of course, playing netball. Despite my love of netball, I am a huge fan of the Matildas. I would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of the things that the Matildas have confronted most recently. They are Australia's most successful side in the round ball game—in the beautiful game. Last year was a great year for the Matildas. They had their best ever result at the Women's World Cup, reaching the quarterfinals following a 1-0 win over Brazil.

We all love sport for its fitness and health impacts, but I always think too about the leadership it instils in our children, our young people, and about the collaboration they learn when they play team sports in particular. I have spoken often in this place about the grassroots community building that happens through sport and the way it brings people and communities together. In fact, many of our communities in my electorate come together through the sport that their children play.

It is important that our peak teams, our national teams, are supported and perform as well as they can. We had some important breakthroughs last year around gender equity, with the Matildas successful not just on the field but also in winning a pay rise. I would like to congratulate Football Federation Australia on that breakthrough decision in women's sport that saw our soccer players, our Matildas, getting a pay increase. We all know that they were earning $21,000 a year, which is less than the mandatory minimum wage of $34,158 in Australia—quite bluntly, a joke in comparison to their male counterparts. These things are important. It is important that our girls see that there is no difference between the genders, particularly when one gender is actually outperforming the other on the national stage. So I am thrilled that the Matildas have secured a two-tier pay structure, with the best players receiving $41,000 a year and players at the next level earning $30,000 a year. It is an incremental step, and it is obviously far from what the male players are earning, but it is better than it was prior to this breakthrough.

It is really important that the symbolic things come through as well, so I cannot finish today without congratulating the FFA on its decision that women's soccer leagues and clubs throughout the country will be travelling on the same class of transport as the male players. I congratulate the FFA on the decision that the women's team will be travelling first class to the Olympics alongside the men—or they will all be travelling in business class or they will all be travelling in economy class. I think that is really important for equity.

Debate adjourned.

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