Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the power and importance of sport in our local communities and in diverse communities such as Western Sydney. Sport is particularly important for promoting inclusiveness, whether it be Superintendent Mark Wright from Blacktown area local command and his initiatives to have football competitions for new arrivals from Africa or the many cricket friendly days hosted by the large subcontinent community in my electorate. As the member for Chifley would know, there is a large Filipino community who love their basketball. Sport really is a strong socially inclusive mechanism.

I particularly want to mention Kings Langley Little Athletics club in my electorate. It is a fantastic community sports group that I was privileged to visit last Friday night for the beginning of the 2012-13 season. It was a cold and windy night but hundreds of little A's were there with their families all rugged up, working the barbecue and organising the various teams. It says something very important about the popularity of this great club. While I was there I had the opportunity to officially unveil their brand-new long jump pit, funded by a $20,000 grant from this Labor government. This is an investment that has been greatly welcomed by the Kings Langley Little A's community and is an investment that would benefit their some 440 members—and growing.

Kings Langley Little A's club is led by their very able president, Darren Tait, and vice president, Ken Poole. I want to highlight especially their contribution to this organisation over many years. The success of Kings Langley Little Athletics depends on the dedication of Darren, Ken and all the volunteers, who give up their time to organise the equipment and uniforms, run the drills, work the barbecue and staff the canteen.

During my visit last Friday night I was also privileged to hand out a long service award to Corrina Moore and welcome the latest centre captains for this season, Chelsea Gassin and Ryce Kable.

I also want to acknowledge four outstanding athletes, from Kings Langley Little Athletes, who brought home a bag of medals from two international events in Canada last month. Siblings Bethany and Dale Parker joined brothers Todd and Ryan Owen on the 17-day Sports Travel Australia track-and-field tour of British Colombia. Their efforts produced a haul of 13 gold, 10 silver and four bronze medals. A truly outstanding achievement. Bethany Parker even broke the shot-put record for the Canadian province of British Colombia with a 10.75 metre throw.

I wish all the volunteers and competitors at Kings Langley Little Athletes all the very best for the 2012-13 season. I again thank their president, Darren Tait, for all his hard work in the Greenway community. It is indeed community and volunteer groups like Kings Langley Little Athletics that make the Greenway community a fantastic place to live for families and young people. I look forward to working with them into the future. They have already signed up my daughter, so I think the club can only go on from strength to strength!