Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House congratulates the efforts of the athletes, coaches, and support staff of the Australian Paralympic Team at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

Over the past fortnight, we have watched in awe as Australians have competed to the highest level in the Paris Paralympic Games, in which 160 Australian Paralympians competed across 17 sports, 61 athletes making their debuts. Our Paralympians range in age from 15-year-old para-swimmer Holly Warn to 69-year-old Jimmy Huo in para-table-tennis. Behind each athlete is a story of determination and resilience, of support and sacrifice by family and supporters and of triumphs and disappointments. Members of the Australian Paralympic team won 63 medals. They have shone, and we heartily celebrate this excellence.

I also want to recognise each individual's journey, medal winner or not, and the support provided by their coaches, families, supporters and sports administrators—in other words, all the people who have provided that scaffolding in their lives. Here are some of their stories. Four women represented Australia in para-equestrian events. Stella Barton from Melbourne was the second Australian to ever compete in grade 1. Having ridden since the age of seven, Stella was ready to retire; however, in a sliding doors moment on her final farewell ride, internationally renowned coach Mary Longden convinced Stella to team up with coach Sally Francis and chase national selection. At Versailles, Stella competed magnificently to finish seventh in the grade 1 freestyle equestrian. Congratulations.

Australia has a star-studded para-cycling team, including South Australia's Meg Lemon. Meg was working as a clinical dietician in rural communities when at age 25 she was hit by a car while riding her bike to work. The accident left her with a permanent brain injury and significantly weakened the right side of her body. During rehab, para-cycling gave Meg a new sense of purpose, and she won bronze at the Tokyo Paralympics. In the lead-up to Paris, Meg resparked her passion in nutrition and has been working as a dietician at the South Australian Sports Institute. In Paris, Meg won a silver medal.

Co-captain of the Australian team and Queenslander Curtis McGrath was serving as an Australian Army combat engineer in Afghanistan in 2012 when he stepped on an explosive device and lost his right leg above the knee and left leg below the knee, so he is a bilateral amputee. He vowed that when he recovered he would represent his country at the Paralympic Games. By 2014, he was world champion and has become a multiple Paralympic gold medallist and a para-canoe legend. He added more gold in Paris—what a legend!

We have large and successful para-athletics and swimming squads, and it has been exciting to see Australian Paralympians in sports as diverse as archery, rowing and judo, not to mention our wheelchair basketball and rugby gladiators, the Rollers and the Steelers. My particular congratulations to our Higgins Paralympians: swimmer Col Pearse, who won silver; 1,500-metre runner Reece Langdon, who won bronze; and triathlete Liam Twomey.

Support from government and the AIS has also helped. The AIS has partnered with Paralympics Australia, national sporting organisations and the National Institute Network to focus on overcoming a range of barriers and building a sustainable future for para-sport in Australia. The sector is united to ensure that para-athletes are integrated into broader sports planning and that the system evolves to meet their needs. Strengthening the support offered to current para-coaches and identifying and developing coaches of the future is another key focus for improvement. Medal winners at the Paris Paralympics will receive payments from the Australian government at parity with successful athletes in the Olympics, a welcome development indeed. Congratulations and thank you to all our Paralympians and all who support you. You have thrilled and inspired us over the last fortnight.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has a proud history at the Paralympics. Since the first games in 1960—to which Australia sent 12 athletes, winning a total of 10 medals—Australia has always punched above its weight in the Olympics and Paralympics together. This year, 4,000 Paralympians travelled to Paris, where Australia was represented by 160 athletes: 152 with an impairment, two athletic guides, two boccia ramp operators, two cycling pilots, one triathlon guide and one rowing coxswain. They were supported by 198 staff, including two handlers for a triathlon. Our youngest athlete is 15 and our oldest athlete is approaching 70. Sixty-one of these athletes made their Paralympian debut this year for Australia. We had another characteristically strong showing, with 18 gold medals and 63 medals overall, for a ninth-place finish.

I'd like to congratulate each participant on their participation in these games. I personally watched a lot of the competition and found it to be inspiring, particularly those who have overcome health and mental challenges to perform at an elite level. The opportunity for people to use sport to overcome differences and a great display of the power of sport to connect and grow people through competition were on display over these last couple of weeks.

I was particularly inspired to watch, and am particularly grateful in congratulating, Cronulla local and Paralympics legend Dan Michel. Dan won a silver medal in Paris. Dan, you made all of us proud in your finals appearance last Tuesday morning, winning your second Paralympic medal in the final against South Korea—a silver medal. I would also like to give a shout-out to Dan's ramp assistant, Ashlee Maddern. Dan has represented Australia on more than 25 occasions, and these were his third Paralympics. On Dan's arm, a tattoo reads, 'Much effort, much prosperity.' The effort Dan has put into this sport since the age of 16 demonstrates the truth of this tattoo. He entered the games for Australia in the unprecedented position of being world No. 1 in the BC3 individual and, paired with Jamieson Leeson, world No. 1 in the BC3 pairs. Dan claimed Australia's first individual medal in boccia in 25 years, securing the bronze in Tokyo, and he has followed that up with a stunning performance to secure the silver for Australia in Paris. As a duo in the boccia doubles, Dan and his partner, Jamie, go by the nickname Dan and Jam, and, along with their ramp operators, received the award for Team of the Year at the 2023 AIS Sport Performance Awards, the first Paralympic team to ever win this award.

Dan, you've done exceptionally well, and you make everybody in our electorate of Cook proud. I'd like to congratulate you on your most recent silver medal and being an inspiration to us all. You've shown us that sports are a great way for people living with a disability to participate. Forty-one per cent of Australians participate in sports at least once a week. This is in stark contrast to Australians with a disability, of whom only 24 per cent participate in sport weekly. Participation is important for not only physical but also mental and social wellbeing for Australians, and we do not want to freeze out Australians living with a disability from these mental and social improvement opportunities. I encourage people living with a disability to follow the example of Dan and to consider sport and what it can do for them physically, mentally and socially. I think we need to look to the NDIS and other government support programs to help people with a disability improve their participation in sport so that it starts approaching that of ordinary, average Australians. Role models like Dan and the other Paralympians are critical to further improving these participation rates. I welcome their leadership.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today, full of pride as an Australian, to congratulate our amazing Paralympic team, who have just competed at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. These remarkable athletes have once again shown the world the true spirit of determination, resilience and excellence that defines our nation. With the closing ceremony taking place overnight, marking the end to the games, our Paralympians are returning home with 63 medals, including 18 gold, 17 silver and 28 bronze. But, medal or no medal, all of our athletes wearing the green and gold have done our nation proud. From the moment the Paralympic flame was lit, our team have embodied the very best of what it means to be Australian. They have faced challenges with unwavering courage and have inspired us all with their commitment to pushing the limits of what is possible.

We have a few Canberra locals amongst the winners. For Canberra, we saw adopted local Vanessa Low win gold in the T61 long jump. She did it in style too, breaking her own world record in the process. We saw Australia's mixed medley team win an incredible gold. Canberran Jesse Aungles was joined by Timothy Hodge, Emily Beecroft and Alexa Leary in the final, with Keira Stephens and Callum Simpson playing crucial roles in the heats. We saw 18-year-old Alex Saffy, a proud product of the AIS right here in Canberra, win his first-ever Paralympic medal in the 100-metre S10 butterfly. These incredible achievements are not just about medals; they are about the stories behind each athlete and their journey. They are about overcoming adversity, defying the odds and showing the world what athletes with a disability can achieve. I also want to acknowledge the support teams—the coaches, families and friends who have stood by our athletes every step of the way. Their encouragement and dedication have been instrumental in these successes, and we owe them our gratitude as well.

Australia loves our sport, and we love our para-athletes. I'm so proud to be a member of a government that is investing in our Paralympians. In June, I stood beside the Prime Minister and the Minister for Sport to announce that the Albanese government was doubling the funding for para-sports. The $54.9 million in additional funding is the biggest ever Paralympics spend by an Australian government. In August, Minister Wells announced that, for the first time, the Australian government would provide para-athletes with the same financial incentives for winning medals as Olympians. Gold medallists will receive $20,000, silver medallists will receive $15,000, and bronze medallists will receive $10,000.

The Paris 2024 Paralympics will be remembered not just for the broken records and the medals won but for the moments that have united us all in pride and admiration for our athletes. To our Paralympians: thank you for representing Australia with such distinction. You are true champions—not just in sport, but in life—and you're an inspiration to us all. Just like our Olympians a few weeks before, you've inspired the nation and made us so proud to be Australian. Thank you, Paralympians.

Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Overnight, the 2024 Paris Paralympics closed, and what an 11 days of celebrating our Paralympians and people across the world it was. We had 150 para-athletes competing, and they did us proud. The one thing that I found really invigorating when I watched the Paralympics was the fact that there were massive, raucous crowds there. When the swimming was on, there wasn't a seat to be had in the place, and the athletes competed in front of crowds that were 70,000 people and more. It was wonderful to see. It was a time of 11 days of stories, where people's lifetimes of hard work, endeavour and dreams came to fruition. We know it's so much more than winning medals; it's that sense of endeavour, aspiration and self-worth that comes with doing what you can in your life, committing and dedicating yourself, having a dream and trying to make it come true.

I thought I'd read out some quotes today from athletes from across the world who competed in the Paralympics. One is from one of our own Paralympians, Tim Hodge, who said:

The Olympics are the epitome of human excellence and the Paralympics are the epitome of human resilience.

I'm going to read out a few more quotes because these athletes inspire us all. Yang Yue from China, who claimed the gold medal in the women's F64 discus, shared an important message to her daughter:

I want to tell my daughter this: it pays to persevere. If you persevere for long enough, your dreams may just come true.

Then there was Ezra Frech from the USA, who won two gold medals in the para-athletics. He said:

I believe I was put here on this earth to normalise disability, change perceptions about what is possible as an amputee, winning back-to-back golds, leading the Paralympic movement until 2028. That's why it was written. The universe gave me the script and all I had to do was this, this and this was going to happen tonight.

Hannah Cockroft, following her win in the women's 100 metres T34, had a heartwarming moment that reminded her of the impact of her legacy. She said:

In the call room this morning someone told me, 'I watched you in 2012 and that's why I am here today.' I really hope there are some girls at home who are doing the same because that's what it's all about. Hopefully, today, some new dreams have been born.

Then there was Zakia. She became the first ever medallist for the refugee Paralympic team. She used her platform to send a powerful message:

Afghanistan is my country, and today the Taliban are in power in my country. It's important to me to show strength to the Afghan women and girls around the world. I've worked hard for that, to show them the medal. I hope the world does not forget the women and girls of Afghanistan.

One last one I'll mention is Ali Truwit from the USA, who lost her leg in a life-threatening shark attack in 2023. She said:

When I was faced with a life-changing trauma, I worked to see the positive and focus on gratitude and let that carry me. When you are truly faced with death and you understand what a second chance at life means, you want to make the most of it. So, I have worked to do that and it's not without an incredible, incredible support system.

So we can see that the Paralympics are far more than just a competition. They represent what it is to be human, what it is to have human resilience and what it is to show dedication and commitment and overcome adversity. I congratulate and thank every single athlete who was at those Paralympic Games and all those who aspire to be there and aspire to be at Olympics in the future. Congratulations and thank you.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every morning when I'm at home in Moorooka I go for a walk. At one of the roundabouts there's the agitos from the Paralympics, the red, blue and green crescents. They represent that idea of the motto of the Paralympics of 'spirit in motion'. I see them every morning. Like all sorts of people across the country, I have been awestruck by the feats of our Australian Paralympians over the past two weeks. I'm happy to take this opportunity to congratulate the team, their coaches and the support staff on their magnificent achievements in France.

The Paris Paralympic Games featured 4,400 athletes from 168 countries, competing in 22 para-sports with 549 medal events. We have seen great success from the Australian contingent—160 para-athletes travelled to Paris to compete. The performances have been extraordinary and the results are 18 gold medals, 17 silver medals and 28 bronze medals. Obviously every medal is inspirational and a personal triumph, but there have been 160 heroic tales, many before they got onto the track or the pool in Paris.

Alongside the greats of the past, like Kurt Fearnley, Dylan Alcott and Louise Savage, we now have new household names: Madison de Rozario, Alexa Leary, Lauren Parker and Vanessa Low. That's just a snapshot of some of our new superstars. I love that phrase: you can't be what you can't see. I'm sure that there are hundreds of children across the country who are now dreaming of their own athletic journeys. Maybe some of them we will see competing in Brisbane in 2032. As the Prime Minister said to the para-athletes at the launch of the Paralympic team here in Parliament House:

The impact that you'll have isn't just while the race is on, or the tournament or the event, it is ongoing.

There will be young boys and girls watching you who'll think to themselves 'I can do that'. In doing so, you lift not just them up, you lift the entire nation.

Two things struck me at that launch: the athletes' palpable pride and the affirmation of the Paralympics Australia president, Alison Creagh, who is on the board of the Brisbane Olympic Games with me. Alison detailed the impact the athletes would have, should have and, we now know, did have. She said:

… winning medals is just one part of the job. For Paralympic athletes, there is a broader context. Paralympic sport has the power to profoundly change lives and to enrich our communities.

It does this by breaking down stereotypes around disability, confronting discrimination and demonstrating the power of diversity and inclusion. It inspires all Australians—with or without a disability—to apply our best selves to all our endeavours in life.

In this way, Paralympic sport is not just important for people who live with disability, it has a unique way of speaking to a far wider audience.

These words are very true. We've all been inspired by the indomitable spirit, courage and dedication these athletes have shown—not only during the games but in the years of training leading up to their events.

The Labor government is a proud supporter of this team. On the day before the Paris games began, the Albanese government announced that our para-athletes would receive the same financial rewards at the 2024 games as the Australian Olympians. That means that Paralympian gold medallists have received $20,000, silver medallists $15,000 and bronze medallists $10,000. This is a just and necessary step. Equity: if you can see it, you can be it.

After a well-deserved break, I know the para-athletes will be looking forward to both Los Angeles in four years time and Brisbane in 2032, in less than eight years time. And I say, in a completely unbiased way, that I know the Brisbane games will be the best Paralympic and Olympic Games that the universe has ever seen.

The Albanese Labor government has directed nearly $55 million—the biggest investment ever by an Australia government—to address systemic and structural performance barriers for para-athletes. This is part of the drive for 2032, called Australia's high performance 2032+ sport strategy. The Australian Institute of Sport has led a review to identify and better understand the barriers to entry and progression of para sport. These include systemic, attitudinal, policy, environmental and technical issues.

To combat these barriers, multisport para hubs will be established in each state to provide enhanced pathways and support systems for athletes and coaches. The hubs will enable access to fit-for-purpose equipment, to support athletes if they move to a different sport and, crucially, to lead to a coordinated and connected national classification system—and I know the University of Queensland is doing some great work there. This initiative is also supported by the nearly $250 million upgrade to the Australian Institute of Sport here in Canberra—so many opportunities in front of us.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been such an inspiration to watch our incredible Paralympians represent our nation in Paris over the past fortnight. There were 4,400 athletes from around the world competing in 549 medal events across 22 sports. The Australian Paralympic team returns home with an amazing 63 medal wins, made up of 18 gold, 17 silver, and 28 bronze.

The Paralympics have a special place in our hearts. They represent all that is great about our proud sporting nation. They remind us of the ability sport has to inspire, to motivate and to bring out the best in all of us, and they show what is possible when you dream and dedicate yourself to a goal, despite the challenges you may face.

The Casey electorate has been represented by Healesville local Bridget Murphy, who is competing in the para dressage with her horse, Macey. Bridget is part of an all-female equestrian team and made her Paralympic debut in the grade 2 category—something she has dreamt of since she began riding as a child. Bridget developed her riding skills with the Yarra Valley Equestrian and Mount Evelyn Pony Club and was training at least twice a week with her coach, Monica, in the lead-up to the games.

Seeing Bridget on our screens was a very proud moment for the Yarra Valley, with her whole team based in our community. They live in the Yarra Valley, her horse, Macey, was bred in the Yarra Valley and her coach is from Coldstream. It's so important to remember, as we celebrate these athletes, that there is always a dedicated team behind them—coaches, trainers and support staff who work tirelessly to ensure our athletes have the best possible chance to succeed. Next to their support staff is their families and friends. I don't think that there could be a prouder moment for a parent—for Bridget's parents, but all parents of our para-athletes—than watching their children compete. We should celebrate our athletes and celebrate their families. We all know that so many of the families sacrifice so much as their children are growing up—time and money—so they can chase their dreams. It's a huge honour for Bridget but also a huge honour for her family and her friends who have been following her journey.

Bridget competed in a test on Wednesday evening, and she was then chosen as one of three riders to represent Australia in the team event on Friday evening, alongside Lisa Martin and Stella Barton. She completed her time at the games in the individual freestyle event on Saturday evening. Congratulations, Bridget, on representing Australia and our Yarra Valley at the Paralympics. You earned your place through your dedication and talent. You have made our nation so proud. I'm so looking forward to catching up with you when you are back home, on home soil.

Congratulations to all of our Australian Paralympic heroes. You have inspired a nation, and you've inspired many Australians. I have no doubt that, as we look forward to 2026, there will be some young Australians with some physical challenges that will have seen the Paralympic athletes compete in the last two weeks, and they'll be inspired to compete in 2026. They give hope to the next generation to compete at the Paralympics. That is what we need to continue to build as a society.

I've been lucky enough to play sport my whole life—nowhere near this level, I would say. What I know about sport is that it brings people together. It brings community together, and we need to celebrate. We can sometimes take for granted the journey we've gone on as a society, but we need to celebrate today that every Australian, regardless of their abilities, how they were born or the challenges they've faced, is able to enjoy sport at a community level, at a national level and at a Paralympic level. That is something we should be proud of as a country.

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

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.