Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I preface my remarks by acknowledging Senator Moore for giving up some of her time so I could make these brief comments. On 6 September the 13th Paralympic Games will begin in Beijing. This is an incredible opportunity for some of our most talented athletes to compete on an international stage. There are 170 athletes and 121 officials representing Australia at these very important games. It is a very large Australian team, and they represent the more than 16,000 Australians with a disability who compete in sport on a regular basis. It is estimated that about 20 per cent of Australians have a disability that impedes their everyday activities. This is rising, of course, as our population ages.

Of the 170 athletes who are going to the Paralympic Games, 10 per cent are from South Australia. As a senator for South Australia and the coalition spokesman for disabilities, I would like to put on record not just who these people are but also some of the inspiring words that they have used to motivate themselves and which I am sure will motivate so many more of us. Kirrilee McPherson, Michael Roeger and Katy Parrish will be competing in athletics. Felicity Johnson, Mel Leckie and Katie Parker will be competing in cycling. Kieran Modra will also be competing in cycling and is currently ranked at world No. 1. We will have Grace Bowman competing in equestrian and Anthony Clarke competing in judo. Libby Kosmala will be competing in her ninth Paralympic Games in shooting. If she wins two silver medals at these Paralympic Games, which is very likely, she will become the most awarded Paralympic athlete in Australia’s history, so I wish Libby all the best. Matthew Cowdrey, Jay Dohnt and Shelley Rogers will be competing in swimming, and George Hucks, Steve Porter and Ryan Scott will be competing in wheelchair rugby.

Those 17 great South Australians each have an online profile that acknowledges who their heroes are—and their heroes are no different to those of many other athletes out there. But what struck me in some of the biographies of these athletes were the words that they use to motivate themselves and their inspirations. Such phrases as ‘bring it on’, ‘it’s all good’, and ‘if it is to be, it is up to me’ are the sorts of mindsets and positive affirmations that these people are taking with them to help them achieve. One of these athletes said that ‘winners never quit and quitters never win’. Another one was urging everyone to keep smiling. Yet another one said, ‘You miss 100 per cent of the shots that you never take’. All these things are very true, not just for able-bodied athletes but for anyone who is participating at any level of sport, in business, in family or in community life. But these athletes are a particular inspiration because they are living with disabilities that many of us have only been exposed to second-hand or through people not in our immediate families. I think we need to do more to recognise the example that these athletes make in leading positive lives and setting outstanding examples for able-bodied athletes and other non-able-bodied athletes. I wish them every success and I am sure that the Senate will join with me in celebrating their achievements.