Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) established in 2010, the Indigenous Marathon Project (IMP) plays a valuable role in promoting healthy lifestyles in Indigenous communities, creating Indigenous role models and inspiring Indigenous people;

(b) the IMP is part of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation (IMF), a health promotion charity that changes lives through running and that celebrates and showcases incredible Indigenous achievement and resilience;

(c) through the IMP, young Indigenous men and women aged from 18 to 30 are given the opportunity to unearth their own sense of self-worth and pride by completing a full marathon;

(d) participants in the IMP mostly train in their communities, attending four one-week training and education camps, and must complete a Certificate III in Fitness, acquire a Sports Aid Certificate and attain both Level I and II Accreditation in Recreational Running Coaching with Athletics Australia;

(e) the capstone achievement of the IMP is for participants to represent their families and communities and complete the biggest marathon in the world, in the biggest city in the world, the famous New York City Marathon held each November;

(f) in the last five years, the IMP has successfully graduated 43 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island men and women with 11 more enrolled in this year's program, coming from remote communities, regional towns and major cities;

(g) most of these IMP graduates had never run before, but in just six months, had all run a full 42.2 kilometre marathon, with the motto 'the harder the struggle, the greater the reward', which builds self-worth and self-belief by setting difficult goals and achieving them; and

(h) in communities around Australia, graduates of the IMP have continued to run, established running and walking groups and organised hundreds of 'Deadly Fun Runs' each year that encourage local communities to lead active lifestyles and help reduce the incidence of disease and social dysfunction; and

(2) commends the work of Rob de Castella and his team in helping to change lives through the IMF and the IMP.

As we stood in the pre-dawn light, the moisture from our breath condensing in the air, someone announced that the Queanbeyan temperature had risen to zero. We were in a park with a group known as the Deadly Runners. Formed by Georgia Gleeson last year, the goal was to build fitness and pride in the local Indigenous community, with the goal of running the five-kilometre Mother's Day Classic. All 10 Deadly Runners successfully completed the run. Later that year Georgia again offered a similar program. At the start of the program, some participants could not run for more than a couple of minutes; by the end, all of them successfully completed the five-kilometre Tuggeranong parkrun.

Georgia's inspiration came from her participation in Rob de Castella's Indigenous Marathon Project. The project gives young Indigenous men and women the opportunity to unearth their own sense of self worth and pride by completing a marathon. The participants also complete a Certificate IV in Leisure and Health to educate and motivate the community on the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle. The IMP helped change Georgia's life, from being what she describes as an unfit smoker to competing in the 2013 New York City Marathon. I was struck by the sense of fun that Georgia creates in her morning running group and her ability to use running to help build a more connected community.

Georgia has also helped shape my running career, encouraging me to become a supporter of the Indigenous Marathon Project. Having run the Gold Coast Marathon in July to raise funds for the Indigenous Marathon Project, I will be joining other members of the Indigenous Marathon Project squad to compete in this year's New York marathon. That squad includes Daniel Lloyd, Chris Guyula, Dwayne Jones, Aaron West, John Leha, Alicia Sabatino, Harriet David, Jaeme Bird, Jacinta Gurruwiwi, Eileen Beyers and Jessica Lovett-Murray. It is an inspiration to be working with these members, the IMP squad, each of whose stories of hard work are truly inspirational.

The Indigenous Marathon Project was established in 2009 by Rob de Castella, founded to provide four remote Indigenous men—Charlie Maher, Caleb Hart, Joseph Davies and Juan Darwin—with the chance to run the New York City Marathon, held each November. The 2011 evaluation report to the Department of Health and Ageing indicated the benefits the initiative provided to the community. It gives young Indigenous men and women from 18 to 30 the opportunity to unearth their own sense of self-worth and pride by completing a full marathon. These skills are then used to assist community members, so it is not just the individual that runs the marathon but also their whole community who benefit from the Indigenous Marathon Project.

In the last five years, IMP has successfully graduated 43 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women, with 11 more enrolled in this year's project. Running is accessible to everyone, and it is hard work for everyone. The Deadly Fun Runs organised around Australia encourage local communities to lead active lifestyles and reduce the incidence of disease and social dysfunction.

The Indigenous Marathon Project is part of the Indigenous Marathon Foundation, a health promotion charity that changes lives through running and celebrates and showcases incredible Indigenous achievement and resilience. Rob de Castella is somebody whose hard work is inspirational for so many Australians. I remember as a child watching him running in the Commonwealth Games and being awestruck by his winning times in the Boston Marathon. The notion of running a marathon in 2:07 is well beyond my wildest dreams, but Rob has been a great help and personal inspiration to me in my own running career. I know also some members of this House have their own marathon backgrounds behind them—not just the Prime Minister but the Chief Opposition Whip and the member for Kingsford Smith are among the keen runners in this House.

This Father's Day, 6 September, the Indigenous Marathon Foundation will launch a major community fundraiser in Centennial Park, Sydney, and simultaneously in about a dozen other communities across Australia. Called the Indigenous Marathon Foundation Father's Day WARRIOR Fun Run, it will seek to promote, highlight and celebrate what it is to be a noble warrior, a good man and a great father. It is being hosted in partnership with Shane Phillips's Redfern-based Tribal Warrior local men's group and the local Sydney Cadigal people, and I wish all participants the best of luck.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Do I have a seconder for the motion?

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I thank the member for Fraser for introducing this motion into the House. Unlike the member for Fraser I have absolutely no ability at all on the running track. Indeed, the last run I went in was a 10-kilometre run around the Dubbo zoo, and at one stage some misguided child tried to feed me peanuts, thinking that I was one of the elephants. But I am pleased to speak on the Indigenous Marathon Project. I actually have found out a little bit more about this in recent times, because the member for Fraser mentioned the original runners in Rob de Castella's project that went to New York, and one of those is Charlie Maher. Charlie Maher is now the director for the Clontarf Foundation South Dubbo campus and is doing a wonderful job with the young boys with the Clontarf program. Indeed, I was chatting with Charlie only a couple of weeks ago, when I was up at South Dubbo at the academy, and he was telling me what was happening with the boys in Dubbo and a little bit about the run that he has just come back from, where he has run in the marathon in Japan. Charlie grew up in a settlement a couple of hundred kilometres out of Alice Springs, from—he will tell you himself—pretty disadvantaged circumstances. With a combination of the Clontarf Foundation and the hand-up given by Rob de Castella, Charlie is now using the skills that he has, and the great way that he is held within the community, to mentor younger men and doing much the same.

Another young Dubbo resident, Nathan Riley, ran in last year's New York City Marathon. He ran the fastest time of the team there, and I think it was the coldest New York City Marathon for some time. Nathan is a wonderful role model. Since he has been back from New York, he has held two IMP Deadly Fun Runs, and in the last one he had over 91 boys involved in the Deadly Fun Run. As little as a couple of weeks ago, while the tryouts were being held at Barden Park in Dubbo for the team for next year's marathon, Nathan was once again there running with the boys, encouraging them to participate.

This is a project that has come from harnessing what many of these young men and women have as a natural ability to run; they just have not had the circumstances and the ability to compete. I can remember Rob de Castella speaking about one of his original runners from Maningrida. One of the problems in training at Maningrida was that every time you were in the tanks at Maningrida and broke into a run you would end up with a pack of dogs hot on your heels. So it was very difficult for that person to train in his home town, so coming away and training with Rob de Castella was certainly a great benefit to him.

This project uses running to change lives. The core running squad push their physical and mental boundaries to a whole new level, and after crossing the finishing line of the biggest marathon in the world they know that they can achieve anything. These runners are trained to become healthy lifestyle leaders by completing a Certificate IV in Leisure and Health, with a focus on Indigenous healthy lifestyle. The qualification is used to promote community-based health and exercise initiatives, including the Deadly Fun Run series. Runners become role models within their communities and are leaders in the promotion of health and physical exercise to address the high incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and renal failure.

Those two wonderful examples I have just used—Charlie Maher and Nathan Riley in Dubbo—are doing exactly that. As someone who represents a lot of Aboriginal people in this place, it is great to be able to speak about something that actually makes a difference and works. I have heard various speeches made in this chamber—some as recently as last week—of a great political nature, and quite often the best results are the ones that do not come from large, grand schemes but just involve someone like Rob de Castella rolling up his sleeves, seeing a need and applying himself to it, and young men like Charlie Maher and Nathan Riley stepping up to the plate, overcoming the disadvantage of their youth and becoming community leaders.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise today and to add my support to the motion before the House brought forward by the member for Fraser. While in nature and name the Indigenous Marathon Project is a sport program, as we have already heard, in reality it is so much more. It is a program of social change. It deserves recognition in this place and more broadly as a vehicle of change for hundreds if not thousands of Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.

As noted in the terms of the motion, the project was established in 2010 as a vehicle to promote healthy lifestyles in Indigenous communities, creating Indigenous role models and inspiring Indigenous people. To be successful, the program needed a determined leader and role model, and in Rob de Castella it has both. Rob is widely remembered for his surge to victory in the 1982 Commonwealth Games marathon on the streets of Brisbane and his world record marathon run that led to him being acknowledged as Australian of the Year in 1983. But in my eyes, and in the eyes of many, his true legacy will be for Indigenous Australians.

Since its inception, 43 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women have graduated from the program, with another 11 enrolled in this year's program. In simple terms, 54 individuals benefiting from the program is impressive. However, the number of those who truly gain is far greater. Young Indigenous men and women participants are given the opportunity to unearth, as we have seen, their own sense of self-worth and pride and get to complete a full 42.2-kilometre marathon while also completing a number of vocational training courses during the year of the program. Participants train mostly in their own communities during the program, and graduates often establish their own running and walking groups, as we have heard, called appropriately the Deadly Fun Runs. The Deadly Fun Runs encourage local communities to lead active lifestyles, help reduce the incidence of disease and also improve and strengthen community and social cohesion.

My community of Newcastle has its own graduate of the program and is home to two of the program's respected ambassadors. One, Novocastrian Nat Heath, is a 2012 program graduate. Nat applied for the program as an opportunity to improve his own education and his health following an earlier diagnosis of the paralysing Guillain‐Barre syndrome, and also to promote health and wellbeing in his community, doing so through the Newcastle parkrun series.

Nat travelled to New York to complete the 2012 New York Marathon, but the marathon was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. Despite the disappointment of not being able to run in the New York Marathon, Nat continued his training and in February 2013 finished the Tokyo Marathon.

Since 2013 he has continued his training, becoming the fastest ever IMP graduate, breaking the three-hour mark at the 2014 Sydney Marathon and, eight months later, winning his age category at the Port Macquarie Iron Man, qualifying him for the world championships.

Taking part in the program also provided Nat with greater self-belief and self-confidence to pursue his career. After completing the program he stepped out of his comfort zone to relocate from Newcastle to Sydney to work as a program manager for the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience.

Our city's program ambassadors, Dave 'Robbo' Robertson and Paralympian Kurt Fearnley, contribute in their own ways to assist program participants. Robbo mentors athletes, hosts functions and livestreams international events. Kurt meets with athletes in their final race preparation, in New York and Boston, where he also competes in the marathons and joins them in celebrating their achievements.

Both ambassadors have also been involved in the Newcastle Hunter Runners Ball, which raises much-needed funds for the program. I look forward to joining with the Newcastle running community at this year's ball, on Saturday night in Newcastle City Hall. Tickets were sold out weeks ago, so keen is my community to support this program. I commend the member for Fraser for bringing the Indigenous Marathon Project to the attention of the House, and I congratulate all organisers and program co-founder Robert de Castella for improving health and social welfare in Indigenous communities across Australia, including in my electorate of Newcastle.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to thank the member for Fraser for bringing this important motion to the House, and we should celebrate the member for Lingiari's role in encouraging Rob de Castella to start or continue this great project. I suppose it would have seemed a bit ambitious at first, but it has proven to be a really realistic thing to do and one that brings great support in the community. And so we have to thank Rob de Castella for that and, in my own community, Jo Weaver, who has for some time now organised a community event at the Granite Creek tavern; this year it will be on Saturday, 10 October. So, if anybody wants to get along to the Barossa Valley and get along to the Granite Creek pub, which is my local and puts on a good meal, you will get to hear from Rob de Castella. I will be there, my wife will be there and various other speakers will be there as well. The next morning, in the community out at Marananga, there is a fun run between Whistler Wines and Seppeltsfield Winery. So it is a great day and a great event which obviously helps to raise money for the runners to go to the New York marathon.

When I spoke to Jo, she was very keen for me to mention everybody but her, and that speaks to her modesty. But I think so many people who are organising these events do it because they think it is a really great thing to do, and not just to recognise Indigenous people in our own community—and I think that is important. I was reflecting that when I was at high school there was no Welcome to Country; there was no event like this in the local community, and I think we were poorer for it. In fact, I know we were poorer for it. So we really should celebrate people like Jo who get the rest of us involved, both raising money and running in the fun run on the Sunday morning.

She did want me to mention all of the South Australians who have been graduates and members. In 2011, we had Patrick Keain from Hove and Kiwa Schilling from Kanmantoo. In 2013 we had Luke McKenzie from Murray Bridge, who was also the 2013 NAIDOC Sportsman of the Year from South Australia. In 2014 we had Ruth Wallace from Adelaide. All of those have gone on to run the New York Marathon and graduate from the IMP program. In 2015, we had Daniel Lloyd from Murray Bridge, who is on the squad and currently training for the New York Marathon in November.

It is a terrific event, as I said before. Last year, I had the 'pleasure' of doing that 5.5-kilometre run. It was rather warm in the Barossa Valley and there are quite a lot of hills between Marananga and Seppeltsfield. If that is a fun run, I would hate to see one that was serious, because at every stop not only was there water but there were people who put you through a range of other fitness training—medicine balls, ropes to throw around, jumping up and down, doing squats and all the rest of it. It was 'fun', but it put some of us through our paces. After the first stop, my wife said, 'You're holding me back,' and sprinted away. She came in, I think, first amongst the fun run participants—if you exclude all the IMP graduates—and shared a great time. She is something of a runner. So this year I am going to try and do a bit better on the hills between Marananga and Seppeltsfield. There are great wineries. I would recommend them both to you if you are ever in the Barossa Valley, Deputy Speaker. But, most importantly, we will be there raising money and afterwards there is a fun day for all the community. These are great projects and they help to raise money for what are worthy projects. They do not just keep Indigenous people fit but they keep the rest of the community fit as well. They bring us together in a good way that is really about reaching a true and lasting reconciliation with Indigenous people in this country.

Debate adjourned.