Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In just over a week the 21st Commonwealth Games will commence on the Gold Coast in my home state of Queensland. It will be the fifth time that Australia has hosted the Commonwealth Games and, by the look of things, it may very well prove to be the best one yet. It's really exciting to think that more than 6,600 athletes and team officials from 70 Commonwealth nations will come together for this huge showcase of international sportsmanship.

What is even more exciting is that there are young Australians standing up, wearing the green and gold very proudly, representing our great country on the world stage. There are young Australians like Liam Wilson. Liam is only 21. He's a light welterweight boxer and he comes from Caboolture, a great suburb in our great electorate of Longman. Liam is going to be a world champion, I'm sure. He already holds an outstanding record of 122 wins from 135 fights. For someone so young, he's got the experience, having been boxing since he was just 10 years of age. It's great to see Liam representing our region, our state and our nation. I know he will do well.

Proudly, our region's talent doesn't stop there. Representing our wonderful area in South-East Queensland, we have sisters Taylor and Kaylee McKeown, who will compete in the swimming. Caboolture's own superfish, Lakeisha Patterson, will also be competing.

I don't know what it is—maybe it's something in the water, if we are talking about swimming—but Australia always shows its strength when it comes to competitions. That is why I'm so pleased to see women truly showing their strength at this year's games. For the first time at a Commonwealth Games there will be an equal number of men's and women's medal events being contested, with sports like women's rugby sevens and beach volleyball being contested for the very first time. The motto for this year's games is 'Share the dream'. It's so good to see this motto being lived by. We have some truly incredible female athletes in this country. It's great to see them finally getting the recognition they deserve. It seems women's sport has hit a turning point in the last few years. We've still got a long way to go, but it's great to see them hitting that turning point. This is a really huge step forward. I'm excited to be able to sit and watch in my lounge room as it starts to pay off.

As I said, the 21st Commonwealth Games are going to be huge. It's going to be the largest sporting event to be staged in Australia this decade. In fact, the GC 2018 is going for gold to deliver an inclusive games by hosting up to 300 para-athletes in 38 medal events across seven sports. An event of this magnitude requires a great team to get it all together. I commend the Queensland Palaszczuk government, with a special mention to the Minister for the Commonwealth Games, Kate Jones, for all of their efforts in having a focus on equality and inclusion; efforts towards making South-East Queensland games-ready; and hard work towards supporting 30,000 full-time equivalent jobs required for the games. It's developed infrastructure across Queensland's south-east corner that will benefit Queensland long after the closing ceremony. It will showcase South-East Queensland to the world, to all of the interstate and international visitors and many, many millions of people who watch the games at home, and their hard work will inject around $2 billion into our economy.

I really am looking forward to watching the games come 4 April. I'm looking forward to seeing the young Australians proudly represent our country, standing in front of the flag and wearing the green and gold, and I'm looking forward to seeing the medal tally at the end of the games. Australia, I am sure, will have won gold after gold after gold.

To all the athletes competing, I wish you all of the best of luck. All of Australia will be right behind you. We'll all be barracking for you and we'll be sharing the dream with you. I'm sure you'll do our nation proud. But I can't sign off without acknowledging the wonderful work that all of the volunteers will be doing at the Commonwealth Games. I know there are people from my electorate that are heading down to the Gold Coast and will be volunteering their time to make sure that the Commonwealth Games go smoothly, that they are inclusive, that we do see equality, that we all have a great time and that we do it safely. Thank you.

See this speech in context