Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let me tell you about walking football. For clarity, by 'football', I mean the beautiful game, the world game, more commonly known in Australia as soccer. Four years ago in South Australia a man called John Walker, a British expat, heard about walking football. He was a lifelong football fan and couldn't play anymore and just went, 'That's for me.' First, he press-ganged his family into doing it. His first team was, in fact, him and his family. A few weeks ago I went along to their awards and now it is a whole roomful of people.

Walking Football is fantastic for older people who want to continue doing their sport. It's great for physical fitness. It's great for mental agility. It's good for social connection. It's really good for mental acuity and addressing memory loss. It is, however, no less intense and they do like to compare their injuries, with corked thighs, twisted ankles and the like. They have now entered the Masters Games, and we are looking forward to having a whole-of-Australia walking football game.

See this speech in context