Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to stand to speak on the Major Sporting Events (Indicia and Images) Protection Amendment Bill 2018. As someone who grew up playing sport, a lot of it at Baker Park in Wyong, I'm very pleased to speak on this today, as a netballer and as someone who knows what grassroots sport really means to local communities.

I'm so pleased to be the patron of the Wyong District Netball Association. The association will have their march-past this Saturday. The march-past is the annual event where all of the clubs in the Wyong District Netball Association come together to launch our season. I'm very pleased, as patron, to be able to be joining that event on Saturday.

In terms of regional sport, I would also like to mention the Central Coast Heart. The Central Coast Heart are the only regional netball team in the Netball New South Wales Premier League. The Netball New South Wales Premier League is a very competitive competition, and it's a pathway for our athletes to be able to then compete at elite levels of netball, nationally and hopefully internationally. I'm pleased to let the house know that the Central Coast Heart last year won the Netball New South Wales Premier League, and our captain, Amy Wild, was announced player of the series, and one of our coaches, Amber, is now a coach at a New South Wales level. I think what this demonstrates is that, if we have pathways to sports in regional communities, we have the opportunity for young women to be able to go on to represent us at a state, national and international level.

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