Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending Dragon Boat Pumicestone's first birthday celebrations. Dragon boating in Australia was started by one of my local constituents, Michelle Hanton AOM, as a vehicle to change the way breast cancer was viewed in Australia and around the world. Dragon boating has since morphed into a movement that builds team spirit, develops fitness, promotes health and, most of all, is simply just good fun. It attracts not only breast cancer survivors but people from all walks of life—both men and women, and young and not so young.

In a time when many memberships of various clubs and community organisations are waning, to their credit, Dragon Boat Pumicestone are bucking that trend. They started 12 months ago with just 22 members, and just one year later their membership has reached an impressive 91 members.

My wife, Alex, and I had I'll call it the pleasure of joining the crew for one of their paddles, and, can I say, if you really want to get your heart rate up and bruise your ego I suggest that you give dragon boating a go, because I can personally testify that my lack of fitness was very much shown up by men and women who were more than 10 years my senior.

To all those involved with Dragon Boat Pumicestone: happy first birthday and may there be many more.