Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

During the election campaign, the political commentator Antony Green referred to the electorate of Mallee. He said, 'in the electorate of Mallee, people love the National Party and football'. Mr Deputy Speaker, I am not sure that they really love the National Party that much, but what they do love is football. As we come to the start of the season across the Mallee with seven leagues—the Wimmera Football League, the Mallee Football League, the Horsham District Football League, the Central Murray Football League, the Sunraysia Football and Netball League, the Millewa Football League and the North Central Football League—we think about the value that football has for community.

A recent study by Latrobe University said that, for every $1 spent in a club, there is at least $4.40 returned in social value. What we see is the role of community. When I was elected I said, 'We need to have a strategic plan.' Often we are not strategic in this place as members of parliament. I said, 'We should build wealth by building capacity.' So, if you invest in people and give them skills, and they have an entrepreneurial spirit, that translates to building wealth. But we should also build community by building interaction. We want our young Australians to get away from the Wii, the Nintendo and the television and to get out and play some sport. In fact, we want them to be more active more often.

The role of our football clubs and our netball clubs is instrumental to having a strong country community. In fact, when they are not able to field a team it is sort of the death knell of a community. We are now seeing the slightly overweight 'coulda been champions' pulling on their boots to keep the club alive by playing in the reserves team, and we see people trying to eat a pie and not spill it on themselves—and it is a real classic skill to be able to do that—and we see all the blokes standing around discussing when it is going to rain in the Mallee.

An honourable member: Never!

No, this year is the year for a very good season—I hope. I just want to pay testimony to all these local people and the clubs—the people who cook the schnitzel and the chips on Thursday night after training, the people who mow the field and the people who collect the rubbish. Country footy and country netball are so instrumental to our communities. May we have a great season this year with football and netball. May it build our communities. May Collingwood finish last at the end of the year and may the Western Bulldogs finally take home the flag this year. Here is hoping for both a good season with the rainfall across the Mallee and Wimmera and a great interaction of community as we pull together our football and netball clubs. Let us have a great year in the Mallee.

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