Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As is rarely seen in these debates and in this House, I bring good news that is not of a political nature. Tonight I want to inform the House of a wonderful community event that brings together the young, the old, the fit, the not so fit and, most importantly, families from all walks of life. This year in my community we will be celebrating the 10th year of the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge bike ride. This event had its first incarnation in 2001 as the Links in the Chain Centenary of Federation Ride. It then became known as the Mall to Mall Ride and today is known as the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge.

It is not a race—in fact, it is not a long ride either—but it is lots of fun and an opportunity for young people, old people and people from all walks of life to just get out and enjoy cycling amongst the cycling fraternity and those who are not of that particular fraternity. For a lot of people it is an opportunity to reconnect with what is a fabulous pastime that has many benefits.

There is many a keen cyclist in this place. We know of some of them but not everyone knows all of them. There are quite a few. Of course, I am one of those and over many years I have done my little bit here to encourage people to stay active and fit and to take up cycling as a non-impact form of having a bit of fun as well as staying fit along the way.

The health benefits of cycling, of course, are clear and are well documented. It can increase fitness, improve muscle tone and strength, help prevent diseases such as heart disease and diabetes and is a great way to manage weight. Socially, of course, it is great fun and very enjoyable. It is a great way to spend time with friends and family and to discover new places. It is also an environmentally friendly way to get around. Apart from that, the only way to have a really decent cup of coffee is in the early morning, even before the sun is up. There is a whole subculture of people that exist out there that do this—way before the sun gets up. They are often your doctors, some professionals, some tradies—a whole range of people. It is really a great way to spend some time and you can do it before work, which is even better.

One of the great benefits of doing the job that we do as members of parliament is that it does grant you the ability to do some things outside of the normal scope of politics. One of the things I enjoy more than anything else is my capacity to organise the community to raise money for good causes. I find that today it gives me greater pleasure than just about anything else I do. I devote some amount of my time to doing that in the community—to really to strive to make a difference in people’s lives not only politically but from a community perspective.

One of the ways I do that—I do it in a number of ways—is to organise this bike ride. It is something that I take great pleasure in doing, although it generates a large amount of work in my office every year. Doing all this with just a few people is hard work. Every year we say, ‘Why do we do this?’ and, ‘Will we ever do it again?’ But this year will be the 10th year that we have done it.

There are two people I especially want to mention—only two, although there are hundreds. The first is Peter Rea, from Peter Rea Design. This is the bloke that actually put me on to his idea many, many years ago. Very simply the story: I went to him and said: “Look, I want to do something in my community. I want to raise money for charity. I want to do something that I can leave behind, something beyond any politics that I do.’ We had a good talk and he basically said ‘What do you like doing?’ ‘I like to ride my bike.’ He said: ‘There you go. That is what it’s going to be. It’s going to be a bike ride from Brisbane to Ipswich.’ And there it was born—a simple way to do things over a light lunch. The other person I want to thank greatly is a guy called Nev Byers, a big fellow with a huge girth and a heart that is even bigger. He is the guy that gave me my first opportunity to make this a reality by donating some money to the event. All the money he gave went to charity.

The way I have always run this ride is that we try to cover costs through sponsors, make sure there are no further costs beyond that and then give all the money that we raise to charity. The ride over the years has seen numbers anywhere from the very first ride of 40 people, which I thought was pretty spectacular at the time, all the way up to 1,000 people. So it has been a huge success and we have lots of great partners and people that help us. I would like to think it has become a bit of an iconic event in the region—certainly plenty of people tell me that it is.

This year we have moved it to a slightly later time. It is going to be on Sunday 22 May, because of the Queensland flooding, and we want to keep it as part of the Ipswich Festival. As I said, people from all walks of life and riding abilities come along. It is not a race; it is about having fun and about participating. The most important thing is that we have raised over $150,000 in that time through a small event organised of the smell of an oily rag. The proceeds go to great beneficiaries such as the Heart Foundation and the Ipswich Hospital Foundation. (Time expired)