Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that:

(a) there are three significant netball events approaching over the next four years, the:

  (i) Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014;

  (ii) Netball World Cup in Sydney in August 2015; and

  (iii) Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018; and

(b) netball:

  (i) continues to be one of the most popular sports in Australia with the highest participation rate of any team sport amongst girls; and

  (ii) has been identified as not only having notable fitness benefits but also significantly decreasing the likelihood of depression; and

(2) acknowledges that:

(a) Australia's elite netball players have opportunities to interact with parliamentarians as they prepare for the upcoming Commonwealth Games and the Netball World Cup;

(b) the Australian media plays an important role in highlighting the role that netball has in our cultural identity, which in turn promotes the sport and increases participation rates; and

(c) Netball Australia should be congratulated for its impact in boosting the profile of women in sport, providing its members with valuable leadership skills and supporting world-class athletes.

I am delighted to move this motion and take the opportunity to recognise the valuable role that the sport of netball plays in local communities across Australia and, indeed, around the world. Netball is played by more than 20 million people in more than 70 countries and is by far the most women's sport in Australia, with an estimated 1.2 million players nationwide.

This motion recognises that our national netball team, the Diamonds, will compete at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in July this year. We wish them all the very best. I note that Australia has won gold in two of the four Commonwealth Games which have included netball. At the last Commonwealth Games, in India, the Diamonds took out silver, with New Zealand taking gold. Hopefully, we will reverse that order, and we look forward to a great competition in Glasgow.

Next year Australia will host the Netball World Cup, in Sydney. The world cup occurs every four years, with the top 16 netball nations competing. Australia has a terrific record, having won 10 of the 13 world cup competitions. I note that the Prime Minister's wife, Margie Abbott, is the Netball World Cup ambassador. I congratulate her and thank her for taking on that role.

The international netball event coming up in Australia, which as a Gold Coast member I am very proud of, is the 2018 Commonwealth Games, which will be held primarily on the Gold Coast. Preparations are well underway on the coast to ensure a fantastic games, and we look forward to welcoming athletes, including netballers, from around the world when the Games begin in April 2018.

With these major events, there will be many opportunities over the coming years for all members of this House to interact with our elite netball players and to support and recognise the role that netball plays in our cultural identity. I encourage members to also promote netball in their electorates and encourage participation. I encourage members and senators to join the Parliamentary Friends of Netball, which has recently been established and which I am delighted to chair.

I also encourage greater recognition by the media and sports commentators of the national netball competition. While netball games are now telecast live, it is important that the sporting media give netball decent coverage so that young girls can hear about their teams and their sporting role models in much the same way that young boys hear about theirs

There are a lot of well-documented pressures and stresses on our young people, and on girls in particular. Participation in sport provides a healthy outlet that can boost self-confidence and help significantly reduce the likelihood of developing depression. Netball provides a sort of antidote to the bombardment of highly sexualized images and photoshopped ideals of beauty that our young girls are constantly subject to and which contribute to the growing incidence of body-image issues. Studies show that looking at a fashion magazine for three minutes resulted in lower self-esteem for around 80 per cent of women and girls. Conversely, the Women's Sports Foundation found that girls who participate in sports at school have better grades, higher levels of self-confidence and lower levels of depression. There is no doubt that the more we can encourage our young girls into sport the better they will be for their participation.

Netball is a very natural pathway for many girls because competitions take place in thousands of local communities. In fact there are 5,273 netball clubs around the country—each hosting a number of teams of different ages. Local clubs are run by dedicated volunteers who give their time each and every week. I thank the many parents, family members and other people who coach, umpire, run the canteen, keep score and cheer from the sidelines every week. They are the backbone of our netball clubs.

I would like also to take this opportunity, in talking about the fantastic network of netball clubs throughout Australia, to recognise the work of Netball Australia. Netball Australia has a long and proud history and does a fantastic job of bringing together the various state organisations to further promote the sport and advocate on behalf of players. I congratulate the board of directors and the hardworking staff of Netball Australia for building such a well-respected and admired brand in Australian sport.

The exciting competitions that are coming up over the next four years will provide all lovers of the sport with the chance to enjoy the camaraderie and sportsmanship that are a hallmark of netball. I am sure there are teenage girls all around Australia, playing in representative teams for their communities and their state, who dream of one day playing for the Diamonds and representing Australia at the highest level. Just as our boys dream of playing cricket for Australia or becoming a member of the Wallabies, it is wonderfully enriching that our girls have such a successful national representative team to strive towards as the pinnacle of their sporting goals. I commend this motion to the House and once again take this opportunity to wish the Diamonds every success when they compete in Glasgow.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today with pleasure to pay tribute to a sport that has delivered enormous social good for over a century in communities across our nation. Netball taught me, and thousands like me, the importance of team, the thrill of winning and the lows of defeat from a contest-by-contest as well as game and season perspective. It taught us about fitness and about persistence; it taught us to work hard and to work together. It taught us about volunteering and about community. It provided local role models—women who played hard on the court and ran a very successful and inclusive association, of which I am honoured to say I am a life member. Women like Jenny Toohey, Irene Cooney, Wilma Ryan, Dulcie Harvey and Alison Purdon were involved from their girlhood through to their 60s, and Kerin Flaherty, today in her 70s, is still umpiring multiple times a week.

In the years I grew from junior to senior, netball grew from a sleeping giant to having the highest participation rates of any sport in the country for girls, and with it came more opportunities for those involved. When I was a kid I lived for stories of Melbourne University Blue and North Melbourne. These were serious clubs where state reps learned their craft and donned the Victorian navy blue in the national championships to play arch rivals New South Wales and South Australia. Today we have a trans-Tasman competition with international players from around the world televised weekly, adding to the media coverage of international competitions such as the World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and annual Tests.

I want to pay tribute today to a lady who was critical and pivotal in building the profile of this great sport: the great Joyce Brown. Joyce Brown OAM was a Victorian player, captain and coach. She was an Australian player, captain and coach. She was a double-A badged umpire and developed the national coaching accreditation programs still used today. She is a great Victorian and great Australian. It was women like those in my community and like Joyce Brown who took their love for the game and built what we have today.

What is so special about netball? Let me explain. It is a true team sport. It is a game of specialised positions that are limited to populate only certain parts of the court. It therefore takes more than one player to move the ball from one end of the court to the other. Teams have alternating possession from the centre, so one team cannot dominate the game the same way they can in soccer or hockey or football or basketball. This creates one-on-one contests all over the court for every possession, which means it is about strategy. It is about creating and closing down space and doing it in a cohesive way, using intricate moves and counter-moves all over the court. The uninitiated soon learn that, although the rules say it is a no-contact sport, it is all about contact in the contest, move and counter-move. It is also like dancing—it has a rhythm that is hypnotic and players rely heavily on kinetic awareness and peripheral vision.

For my netball friends and I, who also played lots of other sports together, netball is the only thing—the sport that provides the tightest physical contact with the perfectly threaded pass, the exquisitely timed lead, the crafted moves that open up just the right space and the 'aha' moment, when limbs and mind combine and a great intercept is taken and the player and ball move smoothly through the air. Playing the game is theatre and concert. It is elegant and graceful. It is demanding and exhilarating. It is the most aerial of sports, combining the perfect one-handed passes, the high hard to a leading player and the sweet arch of the lob, these juxtaposed by the double-handed give-and-gos and tight bounce passes delivered around corners at lightning speed.

In a Commonwealth Games year, I wish another great Victorian, Lisa Alexander, and her charges in the national team all the best in their selection and preparation across the next six months and a great tournament in Glasgow. I, like all netball fans, look forward, as ever, to watching the Diamonds play. I also congratulate all involved in the ANZ Championships, particularly, of course, the Vixens. I commend the motion to the House.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is wonderful to see you in the chair, Madam Deputy Speaker Griggs. I do not think I have seen you in the chair before, so it is delightful to be here this afternoon. It is an absolute delight to speak on this motion, regarding netball, before us today. I commend the member for McPherson on her wonderful motion. I was just talking to her and she was telling me that she was a very good netball player herself and would have had a very promising career at the state level except for a vertebra injury. So it goes to show you that injury can cripple us all. Anyway, I commend the member for McPherson and I will look forward to hearing more about her promising netball career.

The member for Herbert was also telling me that he is fairly mean on the netball court himself. It was also very enlightening to hear from him about his prowess on the netball court.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My daughter played for Townsville.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Right, okay. I think most of us have enjoyed, in some form or another, a friendly game of netball. As a matter of fact, I know that in a lot of country areas mixed netball is very popular and it is a great way for country communities to socialise and to have a bit of fun after work.

But there is a serious side to netball as well. There are over 20 million people worldwide who play netball, so that is a lot of people out there participating, keeping fit and enjoying a great sport. In Australia we have 1.2 million participants, and the majority of those are girls or young women who are out there having a great time. One of my fondest boyhood memories as a young kid growing up in the country was always turning up to Saturday morning sport. You would be there. All the boys would be looking forward to running out onto the football ground, and all the girls would be looking forward to running out on the netball court. Then there would be great socialisation afterwards, and that still continues today in urban, regional and rural centres. It is absolutely an essential part of those communities that we have netball and the various forms of football which take place across the country.

I am also very pleased to see that the Australian government, the Abbott government, has recognised the importance of netball through a contribution of $3 million to Netball Australia. That has been given through the Australian Sports Commission, and it is important that we give funding to the grassroots support which provides the physical basis for young women, in particular, to be out there exercising on a regular basis, because, as we know, when we are out there living healthy lives our minds remain healthy, and that helps our communities across the nation.

So I commend the member for McPherson for this motion. I think that in this place it is always good for us to stop and recognise the important things that take place in our community. We can get tied up in the hefty things, the things that we consider important, but for many young people that daily game of netball—the nerves beforehand, wondering whether they are going to come away with victory, how they have played and whether they have let their team mates down or not—becomes a fundamental part of their lives growing up and a fundamental part of their activities on a weekend. I know that there are netball games played right across my electorate of Wannon, and they are played fiercely and competitively but ultimately in a great spirit, because everyone is able to shake hands at the end of the match.

So I think it is important for all of us here to come together to recognise the importance of netball and what it contributes to our way of life. I think those opposite would probably remember watching that game in the eighties when Australia played New Zealand for the Trans Tasman Trophy and Bob Hawke was in the audience. We won by a goal. It was 1-1, and we won the thriller. I think the whole nation celebrated when that event occurred. So it is great to see netball still flourishing and it is great to see us here as a parliament recognising that.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too, like all the speakers on this motion, am in support of this motion. This is a good, sensible motion which recognises a fantastic sport in the Australian community that is played at all levels, from community level to professional level right across to world championship level, the elite level.

It is a good motion and it does recognise there are three significant netball events coming up in the next four years: the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, which I am sure all Australians will be tuning into on their televisions if they are not visiting and supporting our netball players; the Netball World Cup in Sydney in August next year, which again will be a huge event and something well supported right across all sport lovers; and, near my hometown in Queensland, the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018. There is lots of work being done right now to prepare the facilities, infrastructure and everything the Gold Coast and South-East Queensland will be a party to. We will all be very keen on watching all the sports, but we will make a particular note to focus in on the netball as well. As the shadow minister for sport, I can assure you that I will be focusing on all sports and wishing well to all of our Australian teams and participants.

It is interesting that netball is one of the most popular sports in Australia, played on courts all over the country. Almost every suburb would have a team, court or some sort of infrastructure. Particularly for girls and women it is a very big sport. It has an enormous range of health benefits, which I know the member has talked about in her motion. I think it is also good to recognise that at the elite level we really do have champions amongst champions.

Australia's own national team, the Diamonds, is a fantastic team of great players and does a lot to highlight Australia's prowess, not just in sport generally but particularly in netball. According to my research, we have won titles in 10 of the past 13 world championships. That is an enormous achievement. If you looked across any other code in any other sport, you would be pretty proud to say you have that record. We will also be defending champions at the next world titles in 2015. Unfortunately, New Zealand edged us out of the gold medal at the last Commonwealth Games, but we obviously are always keen to redress that minor hiccup. It is always good to be competing against our neighbours across the ditch and seeing what we can do to beat them in a whole range of things.

I think we will hear it from all the contributors on this. It says a lot about the sport that, globally, over 20 million people play. It is played in 80 different countries, and that there are over a million players in Australia is a great testimony to the game. I know the member for Chifley, who is sitting next to me, is a player of the round ball game—netball from time to time, but he particularly favours basketball. I know he will mention that when he makes his contribution, but I know he is a supporter and very familiar with the game.

I myself have not played very often, but it is a lot more challenging than it may look on the surface. It is a lot more technical and involves a high degree of skill and prowess. I know it is a really big thing in my own community. You see it being played all over. It is as big as or bigger in some areas than soccer, football or any other code. I wanted to acknowledge that.

An honourable member: Cycling.

And much bigger than cycling—in certain parts, anyway—although I might have some debates about which is most fun.

One of the things that is also highlighted is that the success of netball comes not only from players and the game itself but also from the administration and the way that Netball Australia works. If you are going to have a high-participating sport with a lot of people playing, you need a lot of volunteers and community support. You need support at the local government level for infrastructure. You need it at a state level in terms of how the game is structured and played. You need it at the Commonwealth level. I am pretty proud to say that through successive governments netball has enjoyed that support at every level and will continue to do so whether Labor is in office or in opposition, as I am sure would be the case on the other side. It has many benefits, and we have acknowledged those well.

If I could indulge on this motion for a few seconds: I am sure everyone would join with me in saying a big congratulations to our winter Paralympic team. The Paralympic Games in Sochi concluded last night, and Australia won two bronze medals. We are exceptionally proud of that as well.

Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to rise and talk about my enthusiastic support for sport in general but for netball in particular. In my youth I participated enthusiastically in a whole range of sports—ball sports as well, like the member for Chifley—most particularly team sports. You will note that avid enthusiasm is not the same thing as athletic virtuosity, but I tried and I had a lot of fun. That includes involvement in netball, which is of course the leading participation sport for females in Australia and which delivers a fitness dividend of great value to our society. I had involvement when my two girls played netball at school and when I was commandant of the Army Recruit Training Centre, where I sponsored the Kapooka netball 7s, and today I stand before you very proudly as the patron of the Northern Tasmanian Netball Association. Some 1,300 young women participate in the sport from age 11 right up to masters level. They are our emerging Diamonds, some rougher than others but emerging nevertheless into the future to carry the flag for Australia in netball in future competitions.

Team sports have always played a vital and important role in Australia. In today's technological world, they encourage people to engage with each other, to get active and physically involved in life, and to do so directly with other participants. I am glad that, fortunately, real team sport has not been hijacked to the virtual ether. The rewards for all involved in team sports like netball are diverse and long-lasting: physical wellbeing, social interaction and, particularly for the young, the development and enrichment of their character—in a sense, a wider preparation for life. The dedication and discipline shown by players on the field, pitch or court inevitably reap rewards in others facets of players' lives, far beyond their sporting venues.

There remains something very special, unique and rewarding about channelling one's personal efforts toward a goal apart from oneself: to a team unified and made whole by purpose, goal, direction and above all collective effort, that symmetry and poetry we have heard some speakers talking about before. Indeed, many of life's harder lessons, particularly perseverance, are also well learned through the friendly combat of sport. I will paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, who said this about some of the spirit and gritty requirements of people involved in the elite level of sport. I think his quote is equally applicable to character struggle in life, both sporting and beyond. He said:

It is not the critic who counts; nor those who point out how the strong have stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to those actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds … who at the best knows … the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if they fail, at least fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Simply put, team sports matter, and perhaps nowhere more than in Australia. They matter most because winning a match, championship, tournament or other such goal is inevitably tough. It cannot be done without much work, discipline, effort and struggle. While talent is important, beyond a base level it is not sufficient of itself. And this alone makes team sports great practice for winning at, and in, life, which is inevitably much harder still.

Amongst Australia's eminent sporting bodies is Netball Australia, which has a lustrous past and a very bright and exciting future. I congratulate Netball Australia for boosting the profile of women in sport, affording its members valuable opportunities to develop leadership and team skills and supporting our world-class netballers. I look forward to cheering our netball teams, particularly as the Aussie Diamonds take on the New Zealand Silver Ferns at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. I wish the ladies all the best in reclaiming their Commonwealth Games title and in defending their world title in Sydney next year. I also look forward to watching our emerging young Diamonds at netball every Saturday in Launceston.

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is great to be here with you in this great chamber, Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to congratulate the member for McPherson on two counts. First, this is a terrific resolution and is most definitely worthy of the House's consideration. Second, I want to commend her on her persuasion powers: to be able to get me as a fan of basketball to speak about netball is something else. I now extend to you due deference from this point onwards in your ability to be able to do that.

I speak on this resolution quite willingly, particularly from a local perspective, because I have seen two fantastic associations in our area, the Blacktown netball association and the Mount Druitt Netball Association, do wonderful things over an extended period of time and I want to devote my contribution to this resolution to reflect on the work that they have done in their area.

It has already been covered in the course of this discussion about our strength in netball. While our female basketballers do tremendously well on the international stage, it is netball where we are in rarefied air, where we have held our heads up so high for so long. It comes down to strong local competitions providing a talent pool that can be drawn upon for local, state and then national and international competition.

In our area the birth of netball incidentally started out being known as basket ball—two separate words—in Blacktown. It goes all the way back 44 years when about 500 leaflets were letterboxed to local homes and about 50 people turned up to a tiny scout hall that could only seat a few, to kick of the Blacktown netball association. From that day forward, a very hardworking executive committee made up of women from six foundation school clubs set about teaching young women everything they needed to know about throwing, catching, keeping their feet still, aiming, shooting and even umpiring—all from six rule books that were present that they were able to get their hands on.

The year of 1967, unfortunately, proved to be very wet and that caused no end of frustration for the organisers and their students, but the association was alive and well and never took a backwards step. So successful was the recruitment drive that hundreds of local girls would flock each weekend to the handful of courts that existed. This caused no end of heartache for our local government association of Blacktown council, because there simply weren't enough courts to play on.

Enter Joan Sookee, the mother of four daughters. Driven by hundreds of new members keen to take up the sport, she successfully stood for Blacktown council and, under her watch, council approved permanent playing fields or courts for the sport, ironically still known as basket ball, until an official name change in 1970 to netball. Rightly, Alderman Sookee was then honoured each year with one of the major awards in her name being handed out to local achievers.

The local army of mums and players became organised at our opening day in March complete with a brass band that started in playing fields from 1968. As their skills improved, stars began to emerge, including Michelle Collyer, nee Eldred, who became the first Australian rep in 1977, followed by someone who was an attendee at my old school of Blacktown South, Keeley Devery, in the 1980s. So Western Sydney netball was placed well and truly on the map.

The other association that sprung up is Mount Druitt Association, whose president Margaret Weir joins the president of the Blacktown association, Sandra Marks, in being figureheads for the sport in our area, playing out at Blackett. Teams like the Dolphins, Electric Blue, Emerald, Good Shepherd, Hebersham, Hassall Grove, Glendenning Sparks, Tregear, All Stars, Fire Birds, Fusion and New Beginnings all turn out to do their best at Dot Lamerton Netball Complex at Blackett. Those two associations are doing great things.

The final moments of my speech, however, will be focused on this one thing: as I mentioned earlier, rain is a terrible enemy of weekend netball and, if you do not play, it gets forfeited. We need to see in our area an indoor complex that can house netball games, that can provide wet-weather ability to continue those games but can also provide a platform for other sports like futsal to play. I urge Blacktown council to find the wherewithal to fund the development of such a complex in ours, the largest council in the state. But, again, member for McPherson, thank you putting a spotlight on what is a terrific sport, doing great things for women and young girls in our area.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.