Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did not ever think that I would be standing in this place to talk about the game of golf, and particularly to extol the virtues of the game of golf.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18 : 09 to 18 : 20

Nonetheless, I support this motion brought by the member for Forde, which brings to this place's attention the importance of the game of golf to our country—economically, financially, socially and also health-wise. I do not profess to be an expert on golf, a regular player of golf or even a semiregular player of golf. However, I was very glad that I was in the chamber to have heard from the members for Lyne, Paterson, Casey and Hunter, who are all clearly very passionate about the sport for the sport's sake.

On the few occasions that I've played golf, I have not covered myself in any type of glory. But I will share this story for the sake of embarrassing my husband about the one time that I did actually win a trophy in golf. I was playing with him and my mother-in-law. We were playing Ambrose in a competition out at Lake Cargelligo for a charity event at the time. Mostly due to the efforts of my mother-in-law and me, we won. We won the Bradman prize, and that consisted of two frozen chickens. My husband refused even to get up and accept the frozen chickens, but my mother-in-law and I were not so proud, and we were delighted to have won. That is the one and only time I've ever won any prize in golf, and I do not see myself ever winning another prize.

However, I am convinced by the terms of this motion in this place that we should acknowledge the tremendous role that the golf industry plays, and I also want to acknowledge the three excellent courses that I have in my electorate of Hughes. We have the Ridge Golf Course and Driving Range at Barden Ridge, Kareela Golf Club at Kareela and also Brighton Lakes Recreation and Golf Club at Moorebank. I was recently out at Brighton Lakes to give them three new flags: the Australian flag, the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag. It was lovely to have a tour of their facilities.

Some statistics about golf that have been released recently by the Australian golf industry support this motion brought by the member for Forde. They reveal things such as golf provides $3.3 billion in total annual benefits to the Australian economy and the community. There are also significant environmental benefits that are brought by this game. There is a growing and deepening participation in all forms of golf, and golf's estimated annual household expenditure is in the realm of $10.3 billion. Apparently, according to current statistics, 37 per cent of adult Australians, which is over 7.2 million Australians, say they visit a golf course on a fairly regular basis. This is a massive participation sport, and it brings communities together. That is why I think this is a motion that should be supported and we should acknowledge the benefits that golf brings both to local communities and to the country as a whole. The overall contribution to the Australian economy is valued at about $394 million for businesses alone and about $122 million for industry workers. This is yet another example of why the game of golf is very important to our economy.

In closing, because I am no expert on golf, I left it to Google. I want to reveal a couple of the golfing quotes that came up. There is, of course, Mark Twain, who said: 'Golf is a good walk spoiled.' But then there is Greg Norman who said, 'Happiness is a long walk with a putter.' Tiger Woods—and I've actually read Tiger Woods' biography—said, 'It's funny, the more I practice, the luckier I get.' That was when somebody out in the audience had said to him, after he performed a particularly good shot, 'Wow, that was lucky, Tiger.' That was Tiger's response. But I am a baseball tragic, so I will leave it to Hank Aaron, a prolific player in the fifties, sixties and seventies, who said: 'It took me 17 years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. It took one afternoon on the golf course!' I have sympathy for that!

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