Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, as many have observed, this is your last day, but I thought I might cover off my contribution first and save my final remarks for thanks to you and the friendship we've had over the past 10 or 11 years.

On 24 September, we celebrated an extremely important milestone in Australian sport: 100 years of women's football. On this anniversary, we reflected on the very first public game of football played by women in Australia 100 years ago on 24 September 1921. This historic game was played at the Gabba between the North Brisbane Reds and the Blues of South Brisbane. Sixteen-year-old Jean Campbell, the captain of the Reds, played a key role not only in organising the match but in scoring one of the goals that led the Reds of North Brisbane to a two-nil victory over the Blues of South Brisbane. The iconic game was attended by a crowd of over 10,000 people with the Queensland Times reporting that the players showed considerable skill, stamina and 'evidence of keen training'. Before this, the game of football was traditionally considered a men's sport. This event was vital to raising awareness not only of women in football but of all women in sport.

Unfortunately, it was not until another 50 years had passed that the next major milestone occurred in Australian women's football, when our national teams were formed to compete in their first international tournaments. In 1974, the South Queensland Women's Soccer Association was formed alongside the Australian Women's Soccer Association. The South Queensland Women's Soccer Association opened in 1981 at Atlanta Field in Geebung, the first home of women's football in Australia. The following year, they hosted the national championships for the first time in the newly built Atlanta Field. The South Queensland Women's Soccer Association representative team, the South Queensland Taipans, were victorious in the grand final, another record of success for women's football in Queensland. Fast-forward to 2008. The Queensland Roar, in partnership with the Queensland Academy of Sport, won the inaugural W-League Premiership and grand final. Now known as the Brisbane Roar, the club remains one of the most successful in the W-League, having won three premierships and two championships.

For more than two decades, Australian female footballers have aspired to represent their great country at the Olympic Games and at the FIFA Women's World Cup. The Matildas first qualified for the World Cup in 1995 and competed in their first ever Olympic Games in 2000 as the host nation. Australia has never failed to qualify for the World Cup since 1995. This year, the Matildas achieved their best ever Olympic placing, finishing fourth in the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Women's World Cup in 2023 will be co-hosted with New Zealand. We will see that tournament brought to the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, and this is the first time Australia will host a senior FIFA tournament. With the Brisbane 2032 Olympics on the horizon, it's another opportunity for women's football in Australia to show its capabilities. As Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan say in Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women's Football:

At every level, the story of Australian women's football is one of heartbreak, adversity, and obstacles … but also of tremendous courage and perseverance.

It is my hope that this courage and perseverance demonstrated by our pioneering players will continue to inspire our talented women footballers for years to come.

In the time left to me, Mr Speaker, I'd like to thank you for your friendship and advice over the past 11 years that I've served in this place, including since you've become Speaker and in my time as the Chief Government Whip and also as the deputy whip prior to that, and for your willingness to provide advice, guidance and interaction with the work of my team in my office—and to Cate, Claudine and your whole office as well. Thank you so very much for the efforts that you have put in over the past six and a bit years to lift the standard of debate and the standard of this place, for the benefit of our whole country. I greatly appreciate your friendship and look forward, after your time in this place, to continuing that friendship. Thank you so very much for your service to this House.

See this speech in context