Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Paralympic Games, because last Thursday I had the extraordinary privilege to be in Sydney to welcome home our Paralympians from London. The mass of cameras and VIPs, including the Acting Prime Minister and the opposition leader, was a fitting welcome home for these amazing athletes. One hundred and sixty-one Australian athletes competed in the 14th summer Paralympic Games in London. These athletes brought home some 85 medals, including 32 gold medals, in our most successful Paralympics since Sydney. The Australian team finished fifth on the medal table, notably ahead of the United States, Germany and France.

I was able to attend the Paralympics for three days towards the end of competition. London is to be commended on fanatically supporting the Paralympics. The stadiums and arenas were full. The crowds were huge. The atmosphere at the aquatic centre was electric, and the main stadium was filled to capacity for the athletics, where the racing was exceptional. As a spectacle, the final of the men's 5,000 metre wheelchair race was up there with anything in the Olympics, with Australian legend Kurt Fearnley just missing out on a gold medal. I had the privilege of being involved in two medal ceremonies at the aquatic centre, including one of the gold medal ceremonies for Australian golden girl of the pool, Jacquie Freney. Jacquie won eight gold medals at the games, making her the most successful athlete at a single Paralympics. Not only did she demonstrate extraordinary stamina and determination to win so many events; Jacquie has consistently maintained a positive, approachable attitude. She is a wonderful role model for any young person seeking to make their way in the world.

Another athlete to make his mark on the record books at the London games was swimmer Matt Cowdrey. At the London Paralympics Matt became Australia's most successful Paralympic athlete ever, with a tally of 13 gold medals and 23 medals in total.

I would also like to mention Bill Latham, a Paralympian from my electorate. Bill attended John Paul College in Coffs Harbour and now is a forward in the Australian wheelchair basketball team, the Rollers. The Rollers made it all the way to the gold-medal match, along the way beating the United States. They narrowly lost the final to Canada, but the team and Bill can be immensely proud having won a silver medal. Unfortunately not every Australian athlete could bring home a medal, but in my mind, every Australian Paralympian is a champion, regardless of their result in London. Each of these athletes has overcome extraordinary adversity to reach the highest levels of elite sport. Baron de Coubertin's Olympic Creed is a timely reminder that sport is not always about winning, and he said:

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not to triumph but to struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

Sport tests character and perseverance. It is a challenge to run faster, throw further, jump higher or perform better than ever before. Sport is about pushing through mental barriers, overcoming physical limitations and growing as an individual.

Perhaps the most inspirational athlete at the games, among the thousands of inspirational stories, was Ahmed Kelly. Ahmed was born in Iraq, with severe limb deformities, and spent the first seven years of his life in a Baghdad orphanage. He was brought to Australia for medical treatment in 1998, eventually losing both his arms and legs. Ahmed learnt to walk and run on prosthetic legs. After years of playing Aussie rules with his local team Kilmore in Victoria, he turned his attention to swimming in 2008. Ahmed narrowly missed out on a bronze in the 50 metre breaststroke. Every athlete on Australia's Paralympic team has an amazing story to tell of persistence and determination. Unfortunately time does not permit me to talk about every athlete.

Channel 4 in the UK aired an inspirational advertising campaign in the lead-up to the Paralympics, encouraging people to meet the superhumans. I witnessed the games and met our athletes. Without doubt, they are indeed superhumans. The Paralympic Games certainly embody the very spirit of sportsmanship, the very way in which we believe sport should be undertaken. The roar of the crowd was for the winners but also for those who might be coming last. It would seem that no matter where you finished the roar of the crowd was deafening.

I would also like to commend the Australian Paralympic Committee, who put a team into the field as prepared as they could possibly be. I would like to particularly commend Greg Hartung as the chairman of the Australian Paralympic Committee, and Jason Hellwig our Chef de Mission. Our Australian team, and the support staff and administrators, did Australia proud. They were highly professional in everything they did, and I am sure we will be a force to be reckoned with in Rio de Janeiro, when again our Paralympic team will certainly be gracing the gold medals and the medal dais on many occasions.

Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to add my voice to congratulate the more than 160 of our best athletes that competed, representing Australia, in London at the 2012 Paralympic Games. I think it is really important that, for many, the pinnacle of one's sporting career is to represent your country at an Olympic Games. I watched a number of the events, and I have to say the dedication, the toil and the focus these elite athletes put into their sports is really amazing, and many of them were able to achieve great success.

I wish to briefly mention two Olympians who are from my electorate of Kingston and who were very successful at this games. The first is Stephanie Morton. Stephanie is a 21-year-old resident of Moana Heights who was awarded a gold medal in cycling at the 2012 London Paralympic Games. Pilot rider Stephanie and her cycling partner Felicity Johnson set a Paralympic record by winning the tandem one-kilometre time trial. Stephanie has achieved significant success as an individual cyclist but she decided to ride and support her partner Felicity Johnson, who is legally blind, at the recent Paralympic Games. Stephanie and her partner went into the race as world champions, and they have said that winning their first Paralympic gold medal was the last box to tick off their list of goals.

Stephanie has been cycling for five years after giving up badminton, which she played for 15 years, and I understand that Stephanie was only six years old when she announced to her school class that she was going to compete at the Olympics. Indeed, she now has. Stephanie is now looking to focus on her individual cycling, and perhaps we will see her competing as an individual cyclist at the Olympics sometime soon. I say congratulations to Stephanie and her partner Felicity for their gold medal at this Olympics.

The second Paralympian I would like to recognise is Kieran Modra. Kieran is a resident of Hallet Cove and is legally blind. Kieran broke the world record to claim his fifth gold medal in cycling at the 2012 London Paralympic Games in the four-kilometre individual pursuit. Kieran made his debut in Seoul in 1988 in athletics. He then switched to swimming at Barcelona in 1992 and first competed in cycling in 1996. London was his seventh games. I have to say I have chatted to Kieran before and he is certainly an incredibly dedicated sportsman who has real focus and real commitment.

Kieran and his pilot rider were on the tandem bike. His pilot rider was Scott McPhee. They also qualified for the men's one-kilometre track and the men's time trial and men's road race in London. This is all the more remarkable as late last year Kieran broke a collarbone in a training run and shortly after was lucky to survive a car accident while riding to work. Kieran broke his neck and back but his recovery was much quicker than any of his doctors expected. Kieran said the support he received from the Australian and South Australian institutes of sport was critical to his recovery. Despite these significant setbacks, Kieran literally got back on his bike, and we have seen a stellar performance from him in London 2012.

Kieran started out competing in mixed competitions, and that is where he met his wife and went on to win the gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, but he is now specialising in endurance events such as the four-kilometre individual pursuit. When my office asked Kieran how he was taking in this win, he said he is still letting it all sink in.

I wanted to specifically mention those two athletes from my local electorate, but all around Australia we have seen some wonderfully stunning performances in the Paralympics. As the previous speaker mentioned, some have managed to bring home a medal; for some it was just competing that was should be very proud of. I think the Paralympics shows us the strength of what can be achieved with focus, endurance, commitment and drive. To all the Olympians and all the Paralympians, especially the Australian team: congratulations. I look forward to seeing a similar level of spirit and competition in four years time.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to join the supporters of this motion and congratulate our paralympic team that represented this country so well in London. They represented the country well not only in terms of the results they achieved but also in their overall attitude, sense of sportsmanship and fair play, which was a credit to themselves and to the nation. The motto for the games was 'Inspire a generation', and Australia's paralympians certainly have inspired us all with their representation of themselves and Australia in London. The sense of pride that the country feels was recognised at the homecoming last week, at the joyous celebration in Sydney. It was a genuine celebration of achievement, but more than that, the celebration of an event that has put disability sport on the map. As the London organising committee chairman, Sebastian Coe, said at the closing ceremony, it has changed the way we look at disability sport. Our athletes for the first time competed at packed venues in every sport; 2.7 million tickets were sold and the event was given widespread coverage across the world, with the exception, maybe, of NBC in America. The Paralympics are no longer a sideshow and have become part of the main event, and we hope that this will act as a fantastic inspiration for Australians with a disability to get involved and to participate in sport wherever they can.

I was able to attend the paralympic launch event in parliament before the team set off for London, and it was a particularly exciting moment knowing that Colin Harrison from Victoria Park in my electorate of Swan would be representing Australia in the three person keel boat sonar class. Colin finished sixth with his team mates Jonathon Harris and Stephen Churm, not as good as their performance in Beijing, but nonetheless a magnificent achievement of which they can be proud. Sailing had been a long held passion for Colin but after he lost his right arm to cancer he momentarily gave up the sport before deciding to continue. He went on to compete for his nation. We are all glad he made that decision. Well done, Colin.

Our paralympians were fortunate enough to compete at some terrific venues across London, not least the Olympic Park in Stratford, a site that was formerly an industrial wasteland as recently as 2005. Before venues could even begin to be constructed, the soil had to be decontaminated, a fridge mountain cleared, and other industrial remnants removed. In the process of creating the Olympic Park, waterways were cleared, vegetation planted, and now wildlife has been returned to this area of East London in a major practical environment effort of real action on the ground. The result is 2.5 hectares of new parkland. It reminds me of the development that we hope is soon to become part of the new WA multipurpose stadium which will be in the suburb of Burswood in my electorate of Swan. The site for the stadium is actually a former rubbish dump, so we can relate that to the fridge mountain that was in the UK. It is another example of how land use can change over time.

On this subject, it was disappointing to hear the WA Labor Party announce last week that if they win the next state election, due to be held early next year, they will scrap the decision to build the new stadium at Burswood and instead build it at Subiaco. This would be a terrible decision for Victoria Park in the electorate of Swan. The jobs the new stadium would create, the increased business for restaurants and shops in Victoria Park, Burswood and Lathlain and the construction of a brand new train station would all be scrapped. It is disappointing that the local member for Victoria Park, who has been happy to jump into all the photos whenever possible, has not supported this particular issue. The people in my electorate will judge him harshly but that is his decision.

We have a duty to provide the best facilities, not just for paralympians but for all participants in disabled sport in Australia, and facilitate the growth in interest that is bound to come after such a successful performance from our paralympic team. As we have seen in London, the power of sport is as potent as ever as a means of inclusion and as a means of breaking down boundaries in society, and we need policies to reflect this.

In conclusion, I would like to finish with the words of Tony Abbott at the homecoming in Sydney last week, which we have just heard the member for Cowper attended, which I thought were particularly relevant. He said:

Everyone who represents his or her country has achieved something extraordinary. But for paralympians it is invariably a triumph of the human spirit as well.

I have to say that whenever I mix with paralympians it seems to me they are the happiest athletes of all. Long may that continue. Congratulations to our paralympians of 2012, and I hope you go on to represent Australia again in 2016.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Congratulations to the Australian Paralympic team on a remarkable effort at this year's Paralympics. The Australian team came home with an impressive 85 medals: 32 gold, 23 silver and 30 bronze. Not only did this see our team come fifth on the medal tally, but they bettered their haul of 79 medals in Beijing. There are many, many stories of success, of resilience and of determination. There is Liesl Tesch, who, after the passing of her mother on the first day of competition, went on to win gold in the Skud 18 with her team mate, Daniel Fitzgibbon. There are the Steelers, the Australian men's wheelchair rugby team, who won Australia's first-ever gold in that event. There is Kurt Fearnley's epic marathon that, after having raced the four-loop course around London, resulted in just a second separating the top three—a photo finish saw Kurt earn the bronze. Kurt, it is also worth noting, after competing in the Paralympic marathon showed up last Sunday to compete in his eighth Sydney marathon.

I would like to make mention of two particularly courageous athletes. Rachael Dodds, a student at Cannon Hill Anglican College in my electorate in Brisbane, was born with cerebral palsy. She developed a love of running, encouraged by her physiotherapist. Her parents say that Rachael has always worked hard at whatever she does. When asked by a local paper how she was going to manage the year-12 study workload and training for the Paralympics, Rachel replied, 'I have been able to hone my time management skills and I am a pretty good planner.' Rachael is one determined young woman. In London, Rachael competed in the women's 100-metre T35 and the women's 200-metre T35. Rachael did not come home with a medal, but I have no doubt that this is just the beginning for her.

A second talented young woman I want to pay tribute to is Ellie Cole. Ellie was diagnosed with sarcoma when she was two years old and had her leg amputated as a result of the cancer when she was just three years old. Ellie began to swim as part of her rehabilitation and it quickly became apparent that she was very good at it. She returned from London with four gold and two bronze from seven events. I met Ellie earlier this year when she was announced as patron of Kick Sarcoma, a charity both Ellie and I are quite passionate about. Ellie's passion, generosity and determination mean that the sky is the limit for her and the Kick Sarcoma campaign is very lucky to have her on board.

Sarcoma is a dreadful cancer that accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of childhood cancer diagnoses and about one per cent of adult cancer diagnoses. The vision of Kick Sarcoma is: raising funds for research fellows with grants; through community awareness, improving early diagnosis; aiming to improve sarcoma prognosis by 25 per cent in 25 years; improving outcomes in sarcoma therapy, with a dedication to curing all types of sarcoma; and, through research and medical trials, aiming to find therapies to improve the sarcoma prognosis more generally. I look forward to working with Ellie in her effort to 'kick sarcoma' and I wish her the very best for the next steps of her Paralympic career.

The Paralympics have always been particularly special for my wife, Therese, and I. Therese's father, John Rein, was an RAAF veteran. He became wheelchair bound after a plane crash during World War 2. He was sent to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England as part of his rehabilitation. It was at that hospital where the Stoke Mandeville games—regarded as the forerunner to the Paralympics—began back in 1948. And it was John Rein, my wife's Dad, who carried the flag for Australia at the 1956 games when he competed in archery and wheelchair basketball. Therese's lived experience with her father has inspired her throughout her life as she is dedicated to assisting marginalised and disadvantaged people to achieve the means for an optimal quality of life. Today Therese is an honorary board member of the International Paralympic Committee.

Many have said the 2012 Paralympics will be recognised as a turning point for how disability is seen by the Australian community and the world. For 11 days we watched Paralympic athletes competed in a myriad of sports and very quickly our minds turned from seeing their disability to recognising and celebrating their ability. It is fitting that this happened in England, the first country to give wheelchair athletes a platform to compete and to display their abilities.

From its humble beginnings of 16 injured service men and women who took part in archery back in 1948, the Paralympic movement has grown to what it is today. It is no longer the younger sibling of the juggernaut that is the Olympic Games; it is a professional competition of elite athletes. It is well and truly living up to its name, as these two movements now exist side by side as equals. So congratulations to the athletes, the coaches, the friends and extended community for a remarkable effort at the Paralympics, but also for opening all of Australia's eyes to the incredible abilities of our Paralympians and those who suffer disabilities more generally in our community, our society, Australia.

Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As with the members for Griffiths, Cowper and Swan, it is a great honour to stand here today to congratulate all members of the Australian Paralympic team. The team arrived home from London last week with a total of 85 medals, 32 of them gold. Their hard work and commitment to their sports certainly paid off, with the Australian team winning medals in nine of the 13 sports it competed in. This placed our team fifth overall in the medal tally, making it the most successful Paralympic team since the 2000 games. This is a fantastic achievement by all our athletes, who put on a great deal of training and made huge sacrifices to compete for their country at an international level.

I would like to give a special mention to swimmer Jacqueline Freney, who won eight gold medals at the games. This was the most individual golds won by any athlete at the games, a fantastic achievement that I am sure she is very proud of. I also want to mention swimmer Matt Cowdrey, who became Australia's most successful Paralympian by winning five events in London, taking the number of Paralympic gold medals won throughout his career to 13. I am also pleased to say that our wheelchair rugby team won its first Paralympic gold medal ever, a great achievement by all players on the team and their coaches.

The success of our Paralympic team in London is a great sign of the support available to our athletes here in Australia and a promising sign of things to come in the years ahead. I know there are many programs run across New South Wales to support young athletes living with a disability to help them develop into elite sporting champions. In my electorate the South West Sydney Academy of Sport supports the development of athletes living with a disability through its AWD program. The academy develops specialised programs for each athlete according to their individual requirements. These programs are also developed in conjunction with the New South Wales Department of Sport and Recreation, the Paralympic Committee and Macarthur Disability Services.

We are very lucky in Macarthur to have a local resident, Gerry Knights, working hard as Executive Director of the South West Sydney Academy of Sport. Gerry is also a sports ambassador for athletes with a disability for all New South Wales regional academies of sport. This means he has strong links with the Paralympic Committee, the New South Wales Institute of Sport and the Department of Sport and Recreation, all great organisations which give so much support to our developing athletes. As part of the academy's AWD program, coaching and support staff members are welcome to take part in the program to continue supporting their athlete and to help enhance the athlete's current training program. Coaches can also join the academy through the coaching education program, which gives them many opportunities for ongoing personal development. The AWD program is open to both individual and team athletes and their coaches. Once an individual program is set up, the athlete is given up-to-date coaching resources, sports education programs, expert coaching advice and the opportunity to participate in all South West Sydney Academy of Sport functions. The academy is currently looking for its next intake of athletes with a disability for the 2012-13 program.

Also in my electorate, Macarthur Disability Services run a variety of programs to encourage children and adults living with a disability to develop their skills on the sporting field. MDS currently run a wheelchair sports track program in partnership with Wheelchair Sports New South Wales. This program is open to junior and senior athletes as a pathway for long-term wheelchair sports participation. The program provides coaching by accredited coaches to all wheelchair athletes, with a focus on classifications T51 to T54 and F51 to F58. MDS also run a track and field program for people with a disability who are aged seven to 25. Participants receive professional coaching in sprinting, discus, shot-put, endurance and wheelchair athletics.

I am very proud to see these services running in my electorate and the great support that Macarthur's athletes living in with disability can receive by signing up for these programs. I am sure that with the help of these programs in my electorate we will see some Macarthur athletes on the 2016 Australian Paralympic team in Rio. I am sure that the great success of our London Paralympics team will inspire many young athletes across Macarthur to continue trying their best to achieve their goals. Australia's Paralympians are proof that no dream is too big. They should all be very proud of their achievements in London.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start my contribution on the motion to support the London 2012 Paralympic Games by commending the organisers and the athletes, particularly those athletes from Australia, for doing something that I think has challenged many of us for a long period of time—that is, really putting the issue about the abilities of people who happen to have a disability, however acquired, well and truly at the forefront of our thinking.

I do not know if many other people saw probably one of the best advertising campaigns ever seen, which was run by the UK's Channel 4—the ad is on YouTube, and I encourage people to have a look at it—and is called 'Meet the superhumans'. It is run to the soundtrack of Public Enemy's Harder than You Think, which I understand has now hit No. 4, which is higher than when it was originally released some time ago in the UK. The ad starts with the very moving images of athletes with disabilities coming from all the way across the country ready to compete in those games. They are beautifully shot images, some very hard images of some incredible athletes. Halfway through the ad, you suddenly get very quick flashes of a car accident, a bomb in possibly Afghanistan, of a foetus in a womb—all highlighting really easily just how some of these disabilities have been acquired, and highlighting for people who see the ad that this could be anybody. The ad finishes, if anybody has not seen it, with these amazing scenes of athletes competing, and literally says, 'Meet the superhumans'. It challenges every one of us to think very differently about people with disabilities.

I also want to mention the fantastic billboards that I understand were around London, and the beautiful cheek of them as they had 'Thanks for the warm-up'. It really sent a very clear signal that Paralympics are well and truly on the agenda. The fact that you had huge crowds at the Paralympics really is a testament to the fact that these were the best Paralympic Games, and we are going to see a very different level of interest in these athletes. I did want to start with acknowledging just how fantastic the entire campaign was around that.

The Australian Paralympic team deserves our absolute congratulations here. Certainly the results speak for themselves. They finished fifth overall with 86 medals in total: 32 gold, 23 silver and 30 bronze—amazing efforts. But, again, it is not only the efforts of the athletes that these games have really shown, it is absolutely that we also need to think very differently about people with disabilities and challenge our perceptions around them. These people really were, and are, superhumans.

I particularly want to acknowledge those athletes who come from my electorate—particularly Greg Smith, who was in the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers. He is a local athlete who is from Buninyong in my electorate. He was part of the team who won 66-51 against Canada to take gold. The Steelers well and truly dominated the match to see Australia when its first-ever gold medal in wheelchair rugby. The Canadian team put up a good fight, but the Steelers were too strong and they won every quarter. Greg Smith even finished the game with the last point on the buzzer. Greg was the Australian flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, and he previously won three gold medals in the 2000 games in the 800 metres, the 1,500 metres and the 5,000 metres. He has now won a fourth gold medal in his fifth and final Paralympics. He acquired a disability at the age of 19 in a fairly terrible car crash and, for me, he is not only someone who shows incredible toughness but he is also someone who has championed the cause for people with disabilities.

I am very much looking forward to the civic reception that will be held in Ballarat on 27 September for Ballarat Olympians, but also for our Paralympic competitors. I know a number of the athletes who are attending, including Jared Tallent, race walking; Collis Birmingham, athletics; James Marsburg, rowing; Anthony Edwards, also rowing; Tamsin Hinchley, beach volleyball; and of course, Greg Smith. I am very excited to be able to be part of that civic reception to welcome them home. I know that the people of Ballarat are very, very proud of those athletes.

The government has committed quite a bit of money of late to funding for elite athletes and particularly for the Paralympics. It is my hope, certainly, that that strong commitment continues and also continues to highlight the real importance of the role that these people are going to play within our community as great advocates for people with disabilities.

I again want to commend the motion and also commend the organisers, all of the athletes and all of those wonderful volunteers at the London 2012 Paralympics for really putting disability on the map and highlighting that, in these Olympic games, we well and truly did meet the superhumans.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to get an opportunity to speak on the Paralympic team. I think that the Paralympians are a tremendous asset to Australia, but they are also an extraordinarily important example to all Australians with any disability at all of the opportunity to overcome hurdles in their lives and achieve great things for themselves, for their communities, for their country. While I am a great fan and supporter of Olympians and the great work they do as tremendous sportspeople, I think it takes a very special kind of person to have a setback either through injury or from birth and be able to gather the wherewithal to make themselves into the kind of sportsperson who can represent their country and either win medals or compete in the Paralympics.

Australia has a very proud record at the Paralympics. Governments of all persuasion—Liberal, coalition and Labor—have supported Paralympic teams. I want to take this opportunity to place on record some of the achievements of people from my own electorate of Sturt, and one in particular, who competed in these games in London. There were three Paralympians from my electorate: Felicity Johnson, Libby Kosmala and Esther Overton.

Felicity Johnson is a 22-year-old from Kensington Park. She became one of South Australia's golden girls of the velodrome along with Stephanie Morton, who is not from my electorate, winning gold in their first event, the women's individual B one-kilometre time trial. She came ninth in the women's individual B pursuit. She is impaired visually, from macular degeneration which she acquired at birth. She is a great example to all South Australians and all of those with a visual impairment.

I would also like to recognise Esther Overton. Esther Overton is also 22. She is a swimmer from the Enfield club. She was placed fifth in the final of the women's 50-metre backstroke S2 final. She has a joint fusion acquired at birth. It is a congenital disease called arthrogryposis multiplex. She has gone on to represent her country as well and achieve great things for us as a nation.

There were many other South Australians who competed in the Paralympics, but one of those I would particularly like to note, and that is Libby Kosmala. Libby Kosmala would be very well known to all South Australians because in London she competed in her 12th Paralympic Games. Libby Kosmala has spina bifida, acquired at birth. She is now 70 years old, and she has been competing in shooting over the course of 12 Paralympic Games. She is a mother and, with this birth defect, she has raised her children. In these games she placed eighth in the finals of the women's R1 10-metre air rifle standing SH1 and 24th in the mixed R3 10-metre air rifle prone qualifications.

Not only has Libby Kosmala been a great competitor but she has been a very outspoken advocate in South Australia and nationally for people with a disability, people in a wheelchair and people with spina bifida. I have known her for a very long time. Her children went to my school, Saint Ignatius, in South Australia. I have always regarded her as something of an inspiration. I believe this is her last Paralympic Games, so I want to place on record to Libby Kosmala and her family our gratitude as South Australians for the tremendous example she has shown.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Sturt has just said, Paralympians from Australia and all over the world have provided great inspiration to able-bodied people, to able-bodied athletes and to those people with a disability, the fact that great things can be achieved despite either birth defects or unfortunate accidents which might have occurred. They provide great inspiration and their feats are to be admired by one and all.

As top-level athletes from all over the world began to head home following the 2012 London Olympic Games, top-level athletes whose only difference was having a disability were starting to descend on the Olympic Village for the 2012 London Paralympic Games, which took place from 29 August to 9 September. A total of 4,294 athletes from 164 countries took part in 503 events in 20 sports during these games, with Australia sending a total of 304 athletes. This was the largest team we have ever fielded and our representatives did us proud by achieving excellent results. Australia finished fifth on the final medal tally board with 32 gold, 23 silver and 28 bronze medals. Of the 13 sports Australian athletes contested in London, medals were won in nine. This included Australia's first ever medal in hand cycling and the swimming team won more than half the gold medals on offer. The president of the Australian Paralympic Committee, Greg Hartung, was full of praise, saying that the performance of the Australian Paralympic team at the London 2012 Paralympic Games had exceeded all expectations.

Scott Reardon, one of our Paralympic athletes, grew up in the Riverina town of Temora with sports playing a prominent role in his life. On 10 July 2002 Scott's shoelaces caught in the power takeoff shaft of a tractor, with devastating consequences. His right leg was severed through the knee. Scott, just 12 years of age at the time, was desperately unlucky but he was also remarkably plucky. He spent nearly a month in hospital recovering and being rehabilitated, learning to walk again in just one week and amazing doctors in the process. Scott Reardon is one gutsy individual.

I read now from Scott's own website as he poignantly recalls 10 years on his life-changing accident and his deep love of family, which bears repeating here as an inspiration to others. He wrote:

Everyone has an idol when growing up, I was no different. There were a few people on this list but one stood out, that person was my brother Phil. There was something with the way that he conducted himself in training and competition that was inspiring! There was never an excuse.

I must have been around ten maybe even younger when Phil would invite me down the paddock with a football under one arm. We would kick and pass all the way down to a stretch of dirt where we would do some sprint training. He would handicap me so that he had something to chase and I would do my best to stay in front. Once we were done we would grab the footy and head home. This is probably what ignited my competiveness and the realisation that if you want to achieve something you have to be willing to work for it.

On the 10th of July 2002 he became more than an idol of mine, he became a life saver. The day that I lost my leg could have ended very differently if not for him and my family. When faced with a difficult situation their decisions and actions ensured that I am still here. I will give you an idea of this situation. The family farm is located 35 kilometres from the closest town, no mobile phone service, roads that are not clearly named which makes it a nightmare when trying to tell emergency support where you are. So if an accident was to happen in our area the odds aren’t really in your favour. So when my leg was severed down a paddock 2km from our house, there was always going to be a battle to survive.

I remember regaining consciousness on the ground, looking down to discover that the lower part of my leg was no longer attached and realising that I was in a bit of trouble. Instinctively I got up and hopped to the ute, where Phil, 16 at the time, drove the fastest trip back to the house I had ever experienced. The decision was made by mum and dad not to call the ambulance and wait, but begin the trip and meet them on the way. Dad wrapped a belt around my leg and Phil grabbed my leg in attempt to slow the bleeding. Dad was faced with a situation that would have had to do one of the hardest things that I could imagine, drive with his 12 year old son in agony in the back seat knowing that time was short. Somehow he was able to compose himself and keep the car on the road. We had driven around 25km before we met the ambulance, I can only guess times but it would have been around 35 minutes since the accident and I was now in the care of trained professionals, although I was still not out of trouble, Temora hospital is not equipped in severe cases of trauma, so it was vital to obtain external support and that came when Snowy Hydro south care were tasked to stabilise and airlift me to Canberra where I would have more chances of survival.

Over the following 3.5 weeks I underwent around 12 operations where the doctors had to amputate my leg higher, then put me back together. Being an amputee is something that I had to come to terms with, But I was soon to realise the amazing support network that I had always had around me but never appreciated. This support not only came from my family who were amazing but from the entire district. The support that they gave Mum, Dad, brother and sisters, enabled them to keep me in good spirits and get me back home as fast as possible.

Today marks the tenth anniversary since I lost my leg, It is one of mixed emotions, and although the accident took away some of my hopes and dreams, it has enabled me to be a part of something amazing, Three water-ski world championships and now the biggest sporting event for athletes with disability, the London Paralympics. So I think today should be a celebration of what I have rather than what I have lost, which at the end of the day was only a leg!

Phil is still someone that I idolise, but this day made him more than an idol, he became someone that I owe my life to. The word hero gets thrown around regularly; to me my family are my heroes, without them I may not be alive. I am grateful that I have such wonderful people in my life!

Stirring words indeed—love of family and love of district. Young Scott—he is 22 years old now—comes from a great sporting district. Paleface Adios came from Temora, and there is a great statue of Paleface Adios in the main street, Hoskins Street. They celebrate Paleface Adios all the time. The local Australian Rules football team on Saturday won the Farrer League first grade premiership. It was the first premiership team for that club, the Kangaroos, since the late 1950s, and I know that they are still celebrating that great achievement. The Governor-General was in town on the weekend for an event, but I think her being there, whilst it was celebrated, was probably drowned out in the din that the local Aussie Rules team made over winning that wonderful flag.

Scott Reardon learned how to continue to play the sports he loved with only one leg, and in 2005 he was named the Temora and District Sportsperson of the Year, a wonderful achievement. In 2006 he attended a Paralympic talent search day and was immediately identified as having the potential to perform on the track at the London Paralympic Games. Scott has also represented Australia three times at the waterskiing world championships and won the world title in 2007 and 2009.

Watching the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games gave Scott the further desire to pursue his talent of running and, after juggling waterskiing and athletics for a while, he relocated to Canberra in 2009 to train at the Australian Institute of Sport. At the London 2012 games Scott was part of the athletics team, competing in the T42 100 metres and the T42 200 metres, and in the T42 four by 100 metres relay team. He placed fourth in his 200 metres final, just missing out on getting a podium finish. This gave him all the drive he needed, and he came out for his 100 metres final with everything he had and finished a close second behind German Heinrich Popow, earning the brave Riverina boy a well-deserved silver medal.

I congratulate Scott on all of his hard work and dedication and, indeed, his success at the 2012 Paralympic Games. Temora's popular deputy mayor, Councillor Rick Firman, was lavish in his praise for Scott. 'He embodies all that an outstanding young sportsman can and should be,' Councillor Firman told me this afternoon. 'Scott is genuine, he is passionate and he has turned adversity into triumph. Like everyone in the Temora district, I have the utmost respect for him and what he has done.'

Congratulations are extended to all athletes who partook in the games and to those whose efforts saw them place on the podium and take home a medal. It is an outstanding honour to represent your country at the Olympic or Paralympic games, and with it comes the pressure of the expectations of your fellow countrymen. Australia's Paralympians can hold their heads high with their outstanding results which were achieved as individuals and collectively. They have inspired Australians to have a go and indeed represent what can be achieved with commitment and perseverance. I look forward to seeing what Scott Reardon will achieve in the future, because quite frankly his powers are limitless. I am sure that we are going to hear much more from him and about him in the years ahead.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to join my colleagues in congratulating the 2012 Australian Paralympic team for its spectacular success at the recent 2012 London Paralympic Games. This year we sent our biggest team to date to the Paralympics—161 athletes— who brought home 32 gold medals, 23 silver medals and 30 bronze medals. Our athletes put on a magnificent performance in London. The Australian team was placed fifth on the overall medal tally, with 85 medals in total and a raft of world records to their name. There was a large contingent of athletes from my state of Queensland and they can make claim to 20 medals in the final tally—seven gold, seven silver and six bronze. But even more impressive than those figures were the incredible sporting moments and inspirational performances that we saw during the competition, which were cheered on by all Queenslanders.

We saw world records smashed when Brenden Hall took gold in the 400-metre freestyle, gold in the four-by-100 metre freestyle relay and bronze in the four-by-100 metre medley relay, while fellow swimmer Blake Cochrane broke his own world record with gold in the 100-metre breaststroke. Queensland's Chris Bond, Cody Meakin, Ben Newton, Cameron Carr and Ryan Scott were also instrumental in securing gold for the men's wheelchair rugby team. We also had 18 Queensland athletes make their Paralympics debut in London alongside champions like Rich Pendleton, Tige Simmons, Carlee Beattie and Simon Patmore. I would also make to special mention of Nicole Esdaile, an athlete from The Gap in my electorate of Ryan. Nicole represented our country in goal ball, a sport designed for athletes with vision impairment. Nicole was a member of the first Australian team to qualify in the sport at the Paralympics since 1996.

The performance of all of our athletes was exception and the people of Ryan in Queensland are extremely proud of the team's efforts and achievements. In honour of their success Brisbane City Council's Lord Mayor Graham Quirk presented the Australian Paralympians with the keys to the city. I would also like to acknowledge the success of the Paralympic movement in fostering a unique spirit of competition and friendship among people with disability over the past six decades. Our Paralympians are truly inspirational people both on and off the sporting field. The Australian Paralympians are outstanding ambassadors for Australia and continue to be so after the Paralympic Games. I congratulate them for inspiring a new generation of Australians with a disability to reach their full potential.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to be able to stand here on behalf of the Higgins electorate to congratulate those competitors who competed at the Paralympic Games in London. In particular, I would like to congratulate two residents of Higgins—Shelley Chaplin and Cobi Crispin, both of Ashburton—as well as South Yarra's Katy Parrish, who all represented Australia with great pride. Close friends Shelley and Cobi represented Australia in wheelchair basketball and were able to achieve the wonderful feat of a silver medal—a great testament to all the years of hard work and dedication that they have put into their sport. Twenty-one-year-old Katy Parrish first competed at the Paralympics in Beijing, when she was just 17, an experience that she described then as one of her greatest moments. Katy was born with cerebral palsy but she has never let it hold her back. At the London games, she competed in the 100-metre sprint, the 200-metre sprint, the four-by-100 metre relay and the long jump—an incredible achievement, especially for one so young.

I was also delighted to be able to provide Russell Short, who works in my electorate of Higgins, with a flag before he went away. He has competed in an amazing seven Paralympic Games, dating back to Seoul in 1988, winning six gold, two silver and three bronze medals in discus, shot-put and javelin for the vision impaired. In this most recent games in London, he won a bronze in the shot-put, a most extraordinary achievement. In the Beijing Paralympics, Russell was awarded the great honour of being the flag-bearer in 2008. He has competed at an international level in multiple world championships and is a real inspiration to those who look to try and match his incredible record of seven Paralympic Games. Russell has been recognised before through being awarded an OAM for his contribution to sport and was the first athlete with a disability to be accepted into the Australian Institute of Sport. I was delighted to be able to personally send him off on his way with an Australian flag and to wish him all the very, very best when he competed in the games.

Of course, all of those who compete do so with a great deal of support. They do it with the support, love and care of their families, who sacrifice so very much so that their loved ones can compete at this elite level. They compete with the support of a team around them of coaches, of doctors and of so many people, who ensure that they can make their training on time so that they can be at their very best and represent Australia at our very best.

Australia did incredibly well in the Paralympic Games, ranking five on the medal tally. I think I join with all Australians in saying that it exceeded our wildest expectations. Those of us who watched the Paralympic Games were absolutely thrilled and delighted with the athleticism on display and with the incredible courage, hard work and dedication that clearly it took for every single one of our athletes to be there to represent our great nation.

While he is not a Higgins resident, I would like to also congratulate Matthew Cowdrey, who achieved an incredible five gold medals this Olympics, which is a record, for swimming. He has, over his Paralympic athletic career, achieved a record of 13 gold medals over three Olympics in Athens, Beijing and London.

Each of the Paralympians who represented Australia did so with incredible pride, and we had huge pride in them representing us. We thank them for their wonderful achievements, we congratulate them and we wish all of those who will go on to the next Paralympic Games in Rio all the very best.

Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to join all who have spoken today to congratulate the Australian Paralympic team on their outstanding efforts in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. I would like to congratulate them on their dedication to their sport and thank them for being for such great role models, not only to others in our community with disabilities but to our community as a whole. It is through adversity that these athletes have found the courage to be the best they could be. As a result they have brought back 85 medals and an impressive 32 gold. Through their combined efforts, the Australian team finished fifth out of 74 nations on the medal tally, behind the United States.

Locally, I would like to place on the record some of the efforts of two Paralympians from my electorate of Forde. The first is an Indigenous Marsden State High School student, Torita Isaac, and the other is Bill Latham. Torita is only 17 years old and suffers from cerebral palsy and vision impairment. She was part of our Paralympic athletics squad, placing seventh in the 100-metre sprint and also in the 200-metre sprint, and she finished fourth as a member of the four-by-four 100-metre relay team. Torita first tried athletics at school, where she competed in cross-country competitions with her friends. Torita looks up to the famous Olympians like Cathy Freeman and Sally Pearson.

My congratulations go to Torita as a very brave young woman, who, despite severe pain in her legs, pushed herself to compete in the 2012 national championships in Melbourne to qualify for the Olympic team. In that event she ran 100 metres in 14.93 seconds and was set to run the 200 metres when scans uncovered that she had 11 fractures in her legs. To recover from that and to compete so successfully at the Paralympic Games is an amazing story of courage and dedication, and her family and friends must be very proud of her achievements.

Bill Latham lost his leg after an accident with a tractor slasher in 1995 and has recently moved to the Logan area to train at one of our local sports centres, in Cornubia. He hails from a sporting family. His grandfather, Tedda Courtney, was a former rugby league player for Australia and the first coach of the Canterbury Bulldogs. Bill was part of the Australian team that won the wheelchair basketball at the 2010 world championships in Birmingham, England, and was part of the Australian wheelchair basketball team in London. They went on to win the silver medal, missing out on the gold medal by only six points to Canada.

They are just two examples of many others in our Paralympic team, who brought great pride to this country and to this nation. I would just like to pass on my congratulations to the whole team, not only the athletes but all the coaches, the trainers, and the families of all the athletes as well, because there is enormous time, effort and support from the families. I wish them every success for the future and thank them for their outstanding efforts in the Paralympics.

Pr oceedings suspended from 17:42 to 18:30