Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, I believe I could actually do my 90-second statement here at an unusual time. I want to make the point that I went to a primary school that had 32 children, and one of those children had had polio. We all know that a former Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, suffered from polio as a young person, and this guy actually had a very similar build, which was fairly light in the bottom half and reasonably big in the top half. After his treatment, he was able to live quite a normal life. He played AFL football. He was not the fastest person on the field but he was certainly one of the cleverest. He also played cricket quite successfully as a spin bowler and a reasonable batsman. So there were some good news stories, but I think we can say without any doubt that no-one would have wanted to contract polio.

Like the member for Riverina, I would also like to pay homage to the Rotary organisation for its PolioPlus program. There is no doubt in my mind that we have some great service organisations in this world, but the Rotary organisation, I believe, is the only organisation in the world that could actually have achieved the PolioPlus program.

Debate adjourned.

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