Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the importance of sport in our community, particularly for people with disability. Last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be invited by Futsal Tasmania to a game for players with intellectual disabilities between a Tasmanian team and a team from Tag 5 in Queensland. For those of you who don't know what futsal is, it's a five-a-side indoor football that is played throughout the world. The ball used in futsal is smaller and heavier than in outdoor football and has a reduced bounce. This forces a player to use their skill rather than the ball's bounce to propel it.

The first custom-built futsal stadium in Tasmania opened at Goodwood in southern Tasmanian only last year and, from my visits there, it seems to be going well. The manager of Futsal Tasmania, Romeo Frediani, helped organise the visit to Tasmania by the Queenslanders, and volunteer Matt Etherington coached the Tasmanians. Tag 5 was established in September 2008 and is supported and accredited by the Queensland government. The staff at Tag 5 are committed to enhancing the lives of people with a disability by providing them with the opportunity to be involved in sporting teams and recreational activities.

The Queensland Tag 5 futsal team came to Tasmania last week and played against a northern Tasmanian futsal team in Launceston. It was organised by New Horizons, who have been operating in the area for more than 30 years. New Horizons are:

… a vital link between people with disabilities and their hopes and dreams of becoming involved in activities that most people take for granted.

They rightly point out that sport is an ideal way of encouraging community inclusion and enhancing friendships. The visit by the Tag 5 Queensland futsal team certainly achieved that. After the Launceston game, which was won by the Queenslanders, both teams went out to dinner and I'm told that some great friendships were formed.

As I said, on Saturday I was lucky enough to watch the second game between Tasmania and Queensland in Hobart and to meet the players and coaches from both teams. I confess to being a one-eyed, and at times vocal, Tasmanian supporter, but I wasn't alone. A group of boys, who had played earlier, led the Tassie cheer squad with regular chants of, 'Let's go Tassie, let's go.' And go they did! It was an extremely exciting game, and Tasmania played very well. The Queensland team was made up of all males, but the Tasmanian team had one female, Meena, who was a powerful force with plenty of fancy footwork, but it wasn't just Meena who was very skilful. Many of the Tasmanian team had played street soccer and, while I am loath to single out any one particular individual, our invincible goal keeper, Corey, deserves special recognition. It was anyone's game right up until the end. Just when I thought Tassie had it in the bag, Queensland scored in the dying stages of the game and the final result was a six-all draw.

After the game, both teams enjoyed a barbecue, lots of photos were taken, and players shared their stories. The common theme in social media posts by the Queensland team was that the boys had an awesome time. I am pleased to report that in a replay on Sunday, the Tasmanian team defeated Queensland seven goals to five. Maybe the Queenslanders had trouble acclimatising—we did have snow on Sunday—but, as we know, people with disability encounter many challenges and barriers. As Paralympic swimmer Karni Liddell said:

People with disabilities want to be recognised for what they can do, not what they can't do.

So successful were the Tasmanian and Queensland futsal games that it will now become an annual event with teams from Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales also competing next year.

As Matt, who was the coach and also a volunteer, said: 'It's deeply empowering for the players to feel valued by our community.' It was an extremely exciting game. The friendships that were formed throughout this competition in Tasmania, I'm sure, will go on. I know that the Queenslanders, while shivering, enjoyed every moment of being in Tasmania, and the Tasmanian team enjoyed making new friends. That's what sport is all about. It is all about making new friends and it is all about including everyone.