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

Spring has sprung! It's a fabulous time of year. It's even nice and warm here in Canberra. The temperature was in double digits this morning, which is certainly tropical for this time of year. It's a wonderful time of year for the weather but also it's a fabulous time of year as we see the changeover from our winter sports season to our summer sports season. At this time of year, we see our football finals, and I want to give a big shout-out to Beenleigh Buffaloes Australian Football Club and Park Ridge Pirates Australian Football Club, who are contesting the grand final in their competition this Sunday. Both teams have had a fabulous season, and it's terrific to see two local teams in the grand final. I'm pleased to say they both succeeded at the expense of Gold Coast based teams, so I'm very happy about that!

More importantly, I want to give a shout-out to all of the winter sporting clubs, because they all have demonstrated the value of sport to our community over the past five or six months. That includes my AFL clubs at Ormeau, Beenleigh and Park Ridge; my football clubs—as in soccer, the world game—at Loganholme, Ormeau, Park Ridge and Bethania, and not just the seniors in these clubs but, importantly, also the juniors; and my rugby league clubs at Ormeau, Eagleby, Beenleigh (juniors and seniors), Waterford, Logan City (the Hawks) and Chambers Flat (the Mustangs). All of these clubs survive, day in and day out, because of the enormous work and contribution of the volunteers at the clubs. They are all clubs that each and every season put teams on the park in a variety of divisions to ensure that there are opportunities for kids who want to play sport at the level that they are capable of playing at.

What has been really heartening over the past few years has been to see the growth of women's sport in my electorate, across all of the codes that I've mentioned today—AFL, soccer and rugby league. It would be fair to say that I actually enjoy watching the women's games more, particularly in AFL and rugby league. The ladies get stuck in, and the matches are really entertaining games of AFL, soccer and rugby league to watch. Loganholme FC's team in the women's NPL this year struggled, sadly, but it was their first year there, and I'm sure they'll go on to bigger and better things next year.