Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During the month of February the International Cycle Speedway Federation held its 2009 world championships in South Australia. Events were held at the Salisbury, Lefevre, Murraylands and Findon cycle speedway tracks. The main event, the World Cycle Speedway World Cup, was held on Saturday, 21 February at the Salisbury Cycle Speedway Track. Riders from the USA, England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Poland and Australia competed for the world cup.

On the day, the member for Wakefield and I attended the championships, which included the women’s international, the junior world cup and the men’s open class world cup. The women’s event was won by Nikki Kinross of Australia, the junior event was won by the Australian team, and for the first time ever the Australian team won the men’s open class world cup—finishing just ahead of the favourites, Poland. It was an incredibly intense competition with some sensational performances and plenty of thrills and spills. Notably, the events were all free admission to the community, and not surprisingly a huge crowd turned out to watch the world cup events.

I take this opportunity to congratulate all of the riders who, at the completion of the racing, like true sportspeople, celebrated each other’s performances. I congratulate all of the winners, in particular the winners of the senior world cup—the Australian riders Daniel Pudney, Cody Chadwick, Cameron Crisp and Robert Fitzpatrick. They did our country proud.

Cycle speedway racing is not a mainstream sport and therefore receives little public recognition. It is, however, a sport that is all-inclusive, providing opportunities for men and women right through from tiny tots to older members of the community. Because it is not a mainstream sport in Australia, the local clubs in South Australia are very much dependent on the efforts of volunteers. For some years I have been associated with the Salisbury Cycle Speedway Club, having been introduced to the sport by club stalwarts Trevor and Chris Dutton, and I can speak with personal knowledge about the work of the management committee, the officials, the volunteers and the families who sustain that club. Their organisational skills ensured that the running of the world championship events went like clockwork. It was testimony to both their hard work and their professionalism.

The Salisbury Cycle Speedway is not located in an affluent community, but what the club lacks in finances is more than offset by the richness of the spirit of the volunteers and families who have sustained the club for over 50 years. In doing so, they have enabled over the years thousands of young people to participate in a healthy recreational activity that just about every young person likes to do, whilst at the same time teaching young people better bike-riding skills. I congratulate them for all of their efforts.

On another matter, on Thursday, 19 February the member for Maribyrnong, the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, visited the adjoining electorates of Makin and Wakefield. The parliamentary secretary attended a community forum held at the Tyndale Christian College, which was attended by around 150 members of the community, where he listened to the concerns raised and, where he could, provided government responses to those issues. It is clear to me from the range of issues raised at the forum that addressing the needs of people with disability should be a priority for all governments. Disability issues affect one in five Australians, with flow-on effects to other family members. For many of these people, life can be incredibly tough for the duration of their life. There is a huge amount of work to do, and the problems have been ignored for too long.

During that day we also visited the Elizabeth Special School, the Modbury Special School and Golden Grove High School and met with Mike Potter, the Principal of Tyndale Christian School. I thank and congratulate all of these schools for the extraordinary work that they are doing in assisting children with serious disability issues. We ended the day by attending a church service hosted by Reverend Joan Riley at the Ingle Farm Anglican Church. This was a unique service. It is held every week, specifically meeting the spiritual needs of people, young and old, who have disabilities. It is their service and they run it. It was a memorable experience to be part of the service, and Reverend Joan Riley should be acknowledged and thanked for facilitating it.

Finally, I personally thank the parliamentary secretary for disabilities. His presence at the forum, his meeting with the schools, his meeting with other community groups and his presence at the church service were very much appreciated by all of the people who were able to meet with him. In particular, they were most impressed by his commitment to and knowledge of the issues and the determination he has to address all of the matters that were raised with him.