Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute to an Australian team who defeated the Netherlands in the Hockey World Cup. That is right, the Kookaburras took down the Netherlands. They demolished the Netherlands 6:1 in the Hockey World Cup last Sunday. It was an amazing effort and something I am sad that we have not played up enough; it has just not been a media event. But I want to congratulate the ABC, who did actually broadcast these matches for my hockey-mad family. This was a godsend. It was an amazing effort by the Kookaburras: a 6-1 win, with Victorian Chris Ciriello getting a hat-trick off those amazing penalty corners and a great win for Ric Charlesworth, who has announced he will be retiring as coach after the Commonwealth Games—and a great effort by Jamie Dwyer in the last minutes, with Jamie now holding the record equally with Jay Stacey for appearing for the Kookaburras 321 times; an amazing effort.

Whilst the Hockeyroos did not do as well, they also made an amazing effort appearing in the finals, going down 2-1, also against the Netherlands, on their home turf—if you have ever watched the Netherlands cheer on a hockey team, you would be surprised at how passionate they are about this game, as are many people in Australia.

I would like to end this statement with great concern about the fear of losing the three water based pitches we have in Victoria now: one at Monash University, in my seat, which is going to make way for housing, and the two at the State Netball Hockey Centre, which may go because of the East West Link. This would be a shame.