Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the member for Page and I, along with Melina Morrison, the CEO of the Business Council for Co-operatives and Mutuals, launched Parliamentary Friends of Cooperatives and Mutuals. Co-ops and mutuals are member based organisations that trade for surplus to fulfil their purpose. Their members are at the centre of their enterprise. Maybe you think you don't know any of these businesses, but 80 per cent of Australians are members of at least one, and many are a member of more than one—I turn out to be a member of four of them. They account for seven to eight per cent of GDP.

What sorts of businesses are we talking about? They include superannuation funds; motoring services like RACQ, RAA and NRMA; banking services like ME Bank, Beyond Bank and credit unions; agricultural co-ops; health insurance, like Health Partners; disability services like Kudos Services in Adelaide; health services; housing co-ops; arts co-ops; and aged-care co-ops. There are also 170 First Nations cooperatives across Australia, ranging from health and aged care to arts, primary produce and banking, just to name a few. The largest co-op in Australia is grain co-op CBH, and one of the largest, internationally, is Rabobank.

By entering into a cooperative arrangement, small businesses, primary producers and individual members can achieve much bigger and better outcomes than they could by themselves. Co-ops and mutuals are a great win-win for members, and they're an important part of our economy.

One of my fond memories of my childhood was participating in the Tea Tree Gully gymnastics club. As they say, gymnastics teaches skills for life. For instance, the skills I learned that gymnastics came in very handy when I was aged about five and a very large and very overly friendly hand-reared steer at my grandparents' farm ran at me, no doubt wanting to be patted. The steer was a lot bigger than me, and I got spooked and ran at the barbed wire fence. I got both hands on the wooden fence post and straddle jumped the fence, shredding the inside of my tracksuit pants on both legs—but I landed the jump safely on the other side.

This is the story I told the Gymnastics South Australia's awards dinner last night. Gymnastics includes kinder gym, rhythmic gymnastics, artistic gymnastics, tumbling, circus skills—a shout-out to my friends at Circobats—sport aerobics, sport acrobatics, trampoline sports and gym for all. More than 45,000 people across South Australia participate in gymnastics in some way, from toddlers attending kinder gym to learn gross motor skills through to people in their 80s and 90s. Of course, none of this could be achieved without the many coaches, volunteers, officials, families and other supporters.

Gymnastics is not just fun and good for escaping rogue farm animals; it is good for strength, flexibility, balance and gross motor skills. In fact, it's so good that AFL teams often use it as a strength-building exercise. In this place and in the wider community we're all aware of the importance of community sporting groups for fitness, mental health and community connection. Sporting clubs, largely run by volunteers, are part of what binds our community together, giving people the opportunity to meet their neighbours and community and have some fun.

There are at least 16 gymnastics clubs in Boothby and five kinder gyms. On Saturday night, clubs from across South Australia attended the awards night, some travelling from as far as the Eyre Peninsula, Mount Gambier and the Riverland. Many congratulations to all of the individual, coach, team and club award winners from kinder gym through to elite athletes competing on the international stage. A particular congratulations goes to the Mitcham Rhythmic Gymnastics Club, who adapted a performance featuring ball, ribbon and hoop to a much smaller environment and didn't take out any of us.

Gymnastics South Australia advise me that they have awarded me a 10 for my straddle jump, but I don't think that's an official score. Thank you.