Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Sport unites the world like nothing else, so let's go around the grounds.

Cricket—despite the most recent test performance, one of the many things that unites India and Australia is that we share a mutual love of cricket, and that's good for relations.

Rugby Union—in 2019, Japan hosted the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup. We played against MPs from around the world, so when I recently greeted Defence Minister Nakatani on the tarmac in Darwin, I showed him a picture of us in 2019. We packed down a scrum for old time's sake. That's sports diplomacy in action.

Aussie rules—another reason why I've been championing footy nines, or nine-a-side Aussie rules, for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 is that it can be played at a grassroots level on a rectangular field, nine a side. Some form of Aussie rules is played in 50 countries around the world. That's huge. It includes Timor-Leste, where I co-founded the mighty Timor Crocs many years ago now.

Rugby league—Deputy Speaker, as you know well, the Papua New Guineans have a real passion for rugby league, and our government is supporting PNG's pathway to having a team in the Australian competition, which, again, is going to be a great thing for people-to-people relationships.

See this speech in context