Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this motion from the member for Lindsay regarding the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. I'd like to note that I'm one of the few Queenslanders who have spoken today on this motion. I note that the member for Lindsay, herself from New South Wales, brought it forward. Also the member for Lalor spoke recently, and she tried valiantly to give me a scarf from the Australian netball team, the Diamonds, but as a hockey player I'm of course not allowed to wear anything associated with netball, so I'll leave it there for now. Also I acknowledge the comments of the member for Bennelong, also from New South Wales, and I'm from Western Australia.

We'll acknowledge that the Commonwealth Games are truly a national effort, but Queenslanders and those on the Gold Coast can be rightly proud of the event they're about to host, the challenges they're about to face and the fun they're about to have. There'll be 6,600 athletes and officials from around the world, around the Commonwealth—70 Commonwealth nations, in fact—playing 18 sports and seven para sports in over 275 events. It's a truly mammoth logistical challenge.

The Commonwealth Games have been to Australia five times before. Who can forget Matilda, the kangaroo in the Brisbane Commonwealth Games, with her big winking eye? Of course we don't remember Sydney in 1938, but the games have also been to Perth in 1962 and to Melbourne, more recently, in 2006. The mascot this year is Borobi the blue koala, so that's another gift from Queensland to the nation.

As I am from Western Australia, I will talk a little bit about hockey. WA hosts the Australian Institute of Sport's hockey program, so the women's and men's teams, the Hockeyroos and the Kookaburras, both train and do their camps and compete in Perth based competitions when they're not competing in international competitions. They got a fairly substantial farewell from the Governor, Her Excellency the Hon. Kerry Sanderson, and Premier the Hon. Mark McGowan last week. All 36 players from across those teams got to attend this lunch and have a great WA farewell. Everyone wishes them well in their upcoming competition.

The Hockeyroos have a great record at the Commonwealth Games. They have previously won three gold medals. I'm very excited about their prospects on the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, no Western Australian athlete made the final team, but there are Western Australians in the squad. I note their coach, Paul Gaudoin, who's a legend of Australian hockey, also from Perth, and an Olympian in 1996 and 2000, when the Kookaburras won bronze, will lead the Hockeyroos into what will no doubt be a very successful competition. I want to acknowledge Rachael Lynch, the goalkeeper for the Hockeyroos. She lives in Perth and supports and trains up-and-coming hockey players who have the courage to be the goalkeeper for their team. She's also an RU OK? ambassador, and I thank her for her commitment to the cause of mental health.

The Kookaburras, which is the men's hockey team, will be pursuing their sixth consecutive gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. We're very excited to see them playing in this competition. There are four Western Australians in the team: Jake Harvie, from Dardanup; Tyler Lovell, from Perth; Trent Mitton, also from Perth; and Aran Zalewski, from Margaret River, a beautiful part of the world producing great hockey players, as always.

I'd like to acknowledge the work of the Commonwealth Games WA team appeal committee chairman, Graham Moss, the great footballer. The committee has raised $180,000 to help WA athletes get to the Gold Coast, and again I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the WA state government, which has contributed $60,000 to the quite large expense of getting athletes from Western Australia over to the Gold Coast, and also to enable their training.

My home town of Rockingham was an Australian celebration community for the Queen's Baton Relay, which left Buckingham Palace with the Queen on 13 March 2017 and arrived at Penguin Island, the home of many fairy penguins and pelicans, on 23 February this year. The baton went across Shoalwater Bay and landed on Mersey Point and then travelled along the most beautiful coastline in the world, along Shoalwater Bay into old Rockingham, where the city of Rockingham welcomed all the baton bearers for the day in true Rockingham style. The baton bearers included 10-year-old Jordan Mears from Port Kennedy, a sufferer of cystic fibrosis who still managed to play her part in the relay; and Sharon Young, an advocate and fundraiser for Lifeline WA, who has raised over $100,000 for suicide prevention. I would also like to acknowledge Eileen Frith, a stalwart of the Rockingham community, a freeman of the City of Rockingham, who also participated in the baton relay and honoured the Commonwealth Games. Good luck to all participants. It's going to be a cracking event.

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