Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was my great pleasure this week to partake in a couple of games of sporting activities that were a little bit different. I played netball on Wednesday morning and touch football this morning. I did so with Australia's first ever Olympian who is deaf, Dean Barton-Smith, who competed in the decathlon. Obviously, he has many skills as a decathlete but one of them is obviously not goal shooting, because he is not the best goal shooter when it came to playing netball. I also played with another international athlete, David Brady. Because this is Hearing Awareness week, the thing that was different is that when we played there were no whistles, and all of the players who were not hearing impaired—like me—had had to wear earplugs. So we were not able to communicate and we were not able to yell for the ball or anything like that. It was quite an experience.

I have an email here from David Brady, General Manager, Business Operations, Touch Football Australia. He says:

Hi, Graham,

I would like to thank you on behalf of Deafness Forum of Australia and Deaf Sports Australia for coming down to the sports fields over the past two mornings to try out netball and touch football with a hearing loss twist. I hope that you had a great experience and it provided you with a small insight into what many Australians experience every day if they are permanently affected by a hearing loss or impairment.

They were great activities to be involved with—both the exercise and the Hearing Awareness Week. There were people from all sides of parliament. I noticed Minister Butler was down there playing netball and also Senator Bridget McKenzie from Victoria. After that event we decided to get a politicians' team together to take on the fourth estate, the press gallery. That is a game we will organise later in the year.

Obviously, people all over Australia wear earplugs on a daily basis at their work sites to give them protection so they do not lose their hearing. The ear closing experience was certainly an eye opener for me, because it gave me an insight into how tough it is. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable experience. David Brady is someone in point. He has refereed and played touch football down on the Senate oval over years. He wears two hearing aides and is a great touch player and a great referee. It does not hold him back; it is just a different experience.

Hearing Awareness Week provides an opportunity for the 22 per cent of Australians aged 15 and over who are deaf or have a hearing impairment to share their experiences and their knowledge and help to create a greater understanding of their needs, aspirations and the contributions that they still make to our nation. One in six Australians is deaf, hearing impaired or has a chronic ear disorder. We have a former Prime Minister, Prime Minister Howard, who never let that hold him back in any way, shape or form. He was quite an inspiration to deaf people around Australia, and I think he might even be a patron of some of the national organisations.

Our hearing is fragile and, unfortunately, damage cannot be reversed. So to all of those young people listening to your iPods—turn it down! If you cannot hear your fingers click when you have your iPod in, it is up too loud—that is the rule of thumb. Hearing health is crucial to our enjoyment of life, and for most of us here in the chamber it is something that we take for granted. But Hearing Awareness Week is a reminder that we need to regularly have our hearing tested. When I joined the RAAF Reserve I had to have a hearing test, and it was a bit of a shock to me that during all those years I spent playing in bands I probably stood a little bit too close to the speakers.

Damage to our hearing is often a gradual process. Some of the early warning signs are you can hear but not understand, you find it hard to hear in noisy situations or where there are groups of people, or you think people mumble. I see the member for Banks here and I have seen him chair caucus meetings that are often quite noisy. He does his best to make sure that the hearing-impaired people are accommodated, but it is a tough job.

Hearing impairment, while affecting one in six people, is a disability that often creates inspirational people, such as Dean Barton-Smith, who I met this morning, who became Australia's first deaf Olympic athlete in the decathlon. He is certainly an inspiration to the deaf community, as are, as I have said, Brett Casey and John Howard.

The National Week of Deaf People is also coming up in October. It is a special time to celebrate the achievements of Australians whose first language is Auslan, and I would particularly like to acknowledge Deaf Services Queensland, which resides in my electorate of Moreton, in Annerley, and thank them for the excellent work that they do in our community. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:02