Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opening ceremony of the Olympics had a very unfortunate segment. That the organising committee of the Olympic Games felt it okay to mock the religious image of the Last Supper was not okay on any level. The Last Supper, or the Eucharist, marks the sacrament of the Holy Communion and a very important biblical event. I doubt very much that the committee would have considered mocking Muslims or any other religious sacrament. Given they thought it okay to mock Christianity says a lot in itself. The apology post the event was lukewarm at best—almost a Clayton's apology, where you give an apology that isn't one. To start with 'if anyone has taken offence' was disingenuous given there was outrage across the world at the imagery shown during the opening ceremony.

Secondly, the decision to allow two boxers to compete who had both failed a gender test set by the International Boxing Association and were both disqualified from the boxing world championships in 2023 after chromosome testing came back was not okay. This is unfair to the competitors who demonstrated this in the boxing ring. These are two unfortunate decisions, I believe, made in the Olympics.

Finally, to the Australian team: congratulations on an amazing effort! You did yourselves and our country proud, and for a country with our population to get the medal count we did was phenomenal.