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

I rise to my feet to congratulate not principally the San Antonio Spurs for winning this year's NBA championship, but I do want to recognise that in this fantastic result, Australia has every reason to be proud. Today we had two great ambassadors of our country on that NBA team—one was Aron Baynes, who is a fantastic achiever in the Boomers; and the other is a proud representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, Patty Mills. In his final game today—the game that clinched it for San Antonio—Patty Mills was outstanding, scoring close to 20 points and making a demonstrable impact on the team's fortunes. He got a series of threes; he was terrific—as the member for Gellibrand, a specialist in that, rightly points out—and served the nation and served it proudly. Rightly, he has been able to achieve something that a lot of Australians have not been able to savour on the world stage. He is a tremendous role model not only for young Australians but in particular for people from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background. I think it is important on this special day that we congratulate Patty, congratulate San Antonio and congratulate the next lot of young Australians who will be able to appear on the world stage.