Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the Australian federal parliamentary netball team attempted to bring the Diggeress Cup to Canberra. Despite valiant efforts by my co-captains, the member for Lalor—here in the chamber—and Senator McKenzie, and teammates, the member for Newcastle, Senators McAllister and Hanson-Young and myself, we lost to New Zealand's Parly Ferns, although we did beat the New South Wales parliamentary team. Thankfully our loss was not repeated by the Australian Diamonds, who played after our match and overcame the New Zealand Silver Ferns in spectacular fashion—68 goals to 56. They lost the second test but rebounded on Saturday to beat the Silver Ferns 62 to 50 and now lead the Constellation Cup two games to one.

Our parliamentary netball game did have a serious purpose; supporting and promoting Netball Australia's Confident Girls campaign. Confident Girls has supported over 10,000 young netballers who would otherwise be held back by disadvantage, lack of self-confidence or cultural differences. Much in the same spirit is the Australian government's Girls Make Your Move initiative led by our health minister. Sixty percent of Australian girls aged 15 to 17 undertake little to no exercise, in part because of the reasons I mentioned above. This is nearly double the rate for boys of the same age.

As I wrote in an opinion piece in February, netball deserves better support and recognition. My parliamentary colleagues and I will continue to do our part to lead by example, encourage better promotion and inspire girls to get involved in our national women's sport of netball.