House debates

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Constituency Statements

Banks Electorate: Community Events

4:12 pm

Photo of Ed HusicEd Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I very much appreciate that. That joke worked much better in my head, by the way, Member for Banks!

I want to take this opportunity to recognise a true Chifley champion, Jason Hooper, for his outstanding achievements. He won an impressive three gold medals and one silver medal in swimming events at the World Masters Games in New Zealand last month. The World Masters Games, a global multisport event for athletes of masters age, is held every four years. This year, Jason brought home gold in the 50-metre breaststroke, 200-metre freestyle, 400-metre freestyle and silver in the 50-metre freestyle. However, this was not Jason's first victory. He has been competing as a champion disabled swimmer for over 26 years and during that time he has won a remarkable 163 gold medals, 46 silver medals and four bronze medals. But it has also been more than just competitions and medals for Jason. In 2015 he swam for seven hours straight at Mount Druitt pool for Wesley Mission, and good on him for that.

Jason, who was born with Apert syndrome, which affected his limbs, was not going to let anything stand in the way of helping him to help the homeless. I recently caught up with him to celebrate—

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