Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government is a big supporter of rugby league. The North Ipswich Reserve in my electorate is getting $20 million as part of a $40 million stage 1 upgrade, along with $10 million from the Miles Labor government and $10 million from the Ipswich City Council. I'm a Brisbane Broncos supporter, but I'm also a supporter, in the Hostplus Cup, of the Ipswich Jets and a regular attendee at the North Ipswich Reserve. I say tonight to the National Rugby League CEO Andrew Abdo and the ARL Commission's Peter V'landys that it's time for a team in the NRL with the moniker 'Jets' in it.

I know there are 17 teams in the NRL, and the NRL has had a variety of different numbers. When it was re-formed in 1998 with the merger of the Australian Super league and the ARL, there were 20 teams. Teams have come and gone, and, fortunately for me—can I just say, as a great supporter of rugby league along with the Prime Minister—the South Sydney Rabbitohs were re-admitted in 2002. The Redcliffe Dolphins were expanded in 2021 and admitted last year and are a success. The Ipswich Jets unfortunately missed out in their bid for that licence, and it went to the Dolphins. But Ipswich is the fastest growing area in South-East Queensland and probably in all of Queensland. I know that, in April 2021, the NRL were considering an 18-team competition. In March last year, there were news reports that the NRL were talking about a 20-team competition.

The Albanese Labor government is a supporter of rugby league not just here in Australia. We are giving $600 million to the Papua New Guinea government for rugby league over a 10-year period to expand the game and for associated programs as well.

Ipswich has a long and proud history of rugby league from the Bulimba Cup days, playing against Toowoomba and Brisbane. We provided the front row of the Australian Kangaroos in 1959: Gary Parcell, Noel Kelly and Dud Beattie. Who can forget in the 1950s, Denis Flannery, the Kangaroo Flyer, or the legendary Hughie O'Doherty, who played for Valleys in the seventies? There were rugby league legends like Alan 'Alfie' Langer and Kevin, Kerrod and Steve Walters. Now there's Ali Brigginshaw, an Ipswich girl who plays for the Broncos, Queensland and Australia.

The NRL is thinking about 20 teams. There's talk about a North Sydney Bears team. I reckon a Perth Bears team would be good. They could play in red and black and, of course, the yellow and black of Western Australia. I know the Premier of WA, Roger Cook, wants a team over there, but what about the Jets? I know that PNG want a team. That would be the 18th or 19th team, but the Jets should be the 20th team. We've got 8,000 players in Ipswich and 7,000 in Toowoomba in the rugby league corridor.

I know that the Newtown team is called the Jets. I know that the Ipswich team is called the Jets. Ipswich plays in green and white, and Newtown plays in blue and white. There's a connection, because a legendary New South Wales player and Australian captain Tommy Raudonikis played for the Newtown Jets and scored a try in that last grand final when they got beaten in 2011 by Parramatta. But he coached the Ipswich Jets to their first-ever grand final. I was talking to Steve 'Johnno' Johnson, the chair of the Ipswich Jets, tonight to have a bit of a yarn about rugby league and Ipswich, and Johnno reminded me how much Tommy loved Newtown and Ipswich—both called the Jets. That would be fantastic—what great symmetry to have a team in the NRL called the Jets!

This is really important for a few reasons—one being the history of rugby league in Sydney and the history of rugby league in Brisbane and surrounds. Those merger teams have been very successful. We have seen the Brisbane Lions take in the heritage of the Fitzroy Lions and you can see it at Brighton Homes Arena, with the heritage and history of that merger honoured. We have seen it with the Sydney Swans and South Melbourne Swans. Why can't we do it with the idea of the Newtown Jets and the Ipswich Jets playing in green and blue and white?

I say to the NRL: it is time for an Ipswich team. It is time to bring back the Jets. It is time to bring back those colours. It would not only be welcomed, I say, in Sydney and Brisbane and surrounds but it would back in Ipswich and that great corridor west of Brisbane from Ipswich all through to Toowoomba, the home of great heritage. Back the Jets; support an NRL team by the name of the Jets in the NRL.