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

I rise today to congratulate the Australian Diamonds netball team on taking out the 2018 quad series in a four-way competition against South Africa, the English Roses and of course the New Zealand Silver Ferns, and then backing that up with a 3-1 win in the Constellation Cup for 2018 against the New Zealand Silver Ferns. I want to congratulate national coach Lisa Alexander, her coaching team, her conditioning team and her team of psychologists, who work so closely with our wonderful elite athletes in our national netball team.

I want to finish by saying that it's also a celebration for the parliamentarians in the House, because last Wednesday morning we played the press gallery on our netball court outside, and we continued our winning streak with another win. I want to congratulate the member for Newcastle, the member for Dobell, Senator McAllister and Senator McKenzie for their great contributions on the court against the press gallery. I thank the press gallery for their commitment to showing up every week for training, their commitment to getting down there and getting on the court. They had a coach this year. They were incredibly organised. They even had a mascot. It was a fabulous game of netball played in the true spirit of the game, like girls—that means going in hard, fighting for every ball, chasing down every loose ball, taking every rebound you could get and of course shooting goals, which I failed to do.

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