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

I wish to align myself with the comments of the member for Wright and thank him particularly for bringing this motion to the House as we look at the activity of the Australian parliamentary sports club. Just this morning, for example, we had Graham Arnold, the recently re-signed Australian football coach, come down and give us some tips and tricks. It was a very worthwhile and enjoyable morning. Along with football, we've got basketball, netball, cricket, golf—wherever your sporting passions lie, I think it's fair to say that Andy Turnbull, as the driving force behind the Australian Parliament House sports club, has got you covered, hosting a range of matches, events and coaching sessions, as we saw this morning, and connecting the world of sport with politics.

Sport is a fantastic way to bring us together, as other people have said, connecting people of different cultures, backgrounds and beliefs. Usually we're all in furious and unanimous agreement with one thing in any sport—our disagreement with the referees when they make decisions, as happened this morning. There was a completely uncalled-for penalty call against the parliamentary team's goalkeeper. It was completely untoward. There was no contact whatsoever. But what better example can you have of this connectedness than the parliamentary sports club?

As others have mentioned, the club has a number of events this year in both cricket and tennis in the UK as well as a rugby trip to France. There will also be a number of football games this year, particularly one in Brisbane in July, which I'm looking forward to, but hopefully we organise some others as well. The club brings all of us together. Whilst we mentioned the numbers of MPs and senators that come down and play, I think one of the other valuable aspects of the sporting club is the fact that staff come down and play and are part of it as well and that they can come and enjoy being part of the sporting environment in this parliament.

The vision statement of the club says it exists to foster local and international relations, development and friendship as part of a worldwide movement. Its foundation is built around three central themes, which are encouraging participation in sport for people of all abilities with a view to improving fitness, health and enjoyment. As I said, the sports club's membership covers federal members and senators, importantly, from all parties and across state and federal parliaments, as others have mentioned previously. Established in August 2005, it has gone from strength to strength, and I would say that it's probably in the best shape I've seen it for a number of years in my time here, and it's fantastic to see.

Some of our community partners—because all of this is done in partnership—are the A-Leagues, the Australian Sports Foundation, Basketball Australia, ACT Brumbies rugby, Football Australia, Golf Australia, the National Rugby League, Paralympics Australia and Tennis Australia. These community partners and our corporate sponsors are vital to ensuring the club continues to succeed and thrive, along with, as the member for Wright mentioned in his contribution, the terrific program for women in sport that Andy has run over the years. Sport's ability to connect different communities and groups together extends to international diplomacy. We've already touched on the international trips that will occur this year.

But it's also about community development and, as a number of speakers have mentioned, the ability of the club to fundraise very significant amounts of money over the years that go into a variety of programs and charities right around Australia, with longstanding relationships with foundations supporting causes focused on areas such as health, young people, veterans, homelessness and natural disasters. I know one of the events that we all enjoy every year is the soccer tournament for The Big Issue. We all get to play on the small side fields, as if we're playing indoor soccer, and it's a great tournament, thoroughly enjoyable, and a great opportunity to see what they're doing in the world, supporting those less fortunate.

So congratulations to Andy and the whole team for the fabulous job you do. Thank you for your vision to create this club in the first place.

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