Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone knows that Australians love sport. We don't just love playing it, we love watching it. And we will love watching it in Brisbane in 2032 as Brisbane and the good people of Queensland host a very exciting Olympic Games. I congratulate everyone involved in that win and everyone involved in making it a reality. Australians love watching sport. We love watching it in the pub, we love watching it in person at our great stadiums and we love watching it on our flat-screen TVs. Australia's history of loving games and watching sport is also consistent with the history of the First Nations people of Australia, who integrated sport into their culture and their ways of organising their communities and, indeed, in passing down their stories for thousands and thousands of years.

As Australia has grown as a nation, some of our most important moments have come from sporting achievements. We hosted the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. It was in 1962 that Perth hosted what was then known as the Empire Games. Western Australia built on that tradition, hosting the America's Cup in 1987 in Fremantle. I was a very little child in Fremantle at the time, but my parents have very fond memories of the excitement that the America's Cup brought not just to Australia but specifically to the great port town of Fremantle in Western Australia. And then, in 2000, Australia stopped and watched Cathy Freeman win gold at the Sydney Olympics.

This tradition continues through to this day. In March 2020, just before the pandemic changed the world, the Australian Women's cricket team won the T20 final as almost 90,000 fans watched on. That's why Labor supports this bill. It will make important changes to ensure Australia can continue to host major sporting events. It has also taught us the concept of ambush marketing in sport. There is, unfortunately, too much counterfeit and ambush marketing when it comes to people trying to steal the enthusiasm that people have for these games in order to make a quick buck. None of that money goes back into the sports or the sports people or the community sport, which is where it should go.

I do admire the government's connection of this to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, where they have appropriately noted that there is a right to culture and that that right to culture includes a right to sports and games. It also includes a right to sports and cultural infrastructure.

In Perth, we have some very important and much-loved sports and cultural infrastructure, including the WACA, the WA Cricket Association ground in my electorate in east Perth, which has had a very proud past, from those Empire Games to some of those great cricket matches of years gone past. I remember going to the WACA as a member of the Fremantle Dockers cheer squad when they used to play the night games at the WACA, well before Optus Stadium was even a concept in people's mind.

I also have in my electorate Beatty Park, which was host to much of the swimming for the Commonwealth, or then Empire, Games, but, today, struggles a little because it doesn't quite have the investment that it needs to make sure that it can continue to train up people. It's great for kids, and I want to congratulate Mayor Emma Cole for the upgrades they've made to the community part of that pool, but it is a huge struggle for the local councils and community organisations who get these brand new assets that then, 40 or 50-plus years later, they are struggling to maintain.

Also, when we talk about protecting the culture and intellectual property, some of this is a struggle when it comes sporting merchandise—you don't want to let small businesses become the unintended ones punished for just sharing their enthusiasm for sport. We need to find a way so that small business can be enthusiastic about upcoming cricket tournaments and upcoming Olympics in Australia and make sure that we provide ways for them to show their support rather than just using the punishment that can be dished out under this legislation.

While we know that so much community sport, and indeed professional sport, has been hit hard by the pandemic, we've also had some unique opportunities to show the potential that Australia has as a host of major sporting events. Last month, we saw Western Australia's potential when we hosted the AFL grand final. This year's grand final was an historic event for Western Australia, an historic event for Perth and an historic event for Australia. The AFL may have a contract that says the grand final will remain in Melbourne until 2059, but everyone will remember that in 2021 Perth did an outstanding job as host.

It was a large event that took much preparation, and I congratulate everyone involved in that successful day. Over 61,266 people attended that match, and I'm sure there were a few who snuck in without the appropriate tickets. But it demonstrated the strength and importance of sport to our local economy—2,600 staff worked on that day; New West Foods, a family run business in Malaga, supplied some 9,000 kilograms of potato chips, 6,000 pieces of flathead fish, 12,000 party pies and 14,000 chicken wings; Smorgasbord supplied tonnes of WA-grown fresh vegetables, including some 600 kilograms of cubed pumpkin; The Spice Merchants—not to be confused with the Spice Girls—supplied 1,000 kilograms of spices and produced 10,000 naan breads; and Cheeky Brothers produced 4,000 pizzas. It was estimated that the entire event added some $50 million to the WA economy. And, while the long-term economic benefits are not yet known, Western Australia well and truly showed our capacity to hold national and international world-class sporting events.

It was also great to see Dr Richard Walley welcoming to country every one of those 61,266 people who were there and the millions watching online and on their TV screens. Dr Walley described his welcome to country as a 'modern day passport', which I thought was a really beautiful analogy when we talk about welcoming people here to Australia for sporting events. And, we did have some spectacular local musicians and performing artists, including Baker Boy, John Butler and Eskimo Joe—although I was personally disappointed that Eskimo Joe did not do their classic from the 1990s of 'Sweater'. Maybe they'll be able to play that at next year's grand final. It was all made possible because of the outstanding job that Premier McGowan and the Western Australian government have done in managing the pandemic. If Clive Palmer and the Prime Minister had had their way, WA's border would have been opened and we would never have had the opportunity to host that grand final. Indeed, those 61,266 people who watched it in person would not have had that chance. The 2,600 people who had jobs created as a result of that would not have had the chance. That's why we need a federal government that's willing to work with Western Australia rather than against us.

An example of this was the Empire Games in 1962. That was a project that was worked on between state and federal governments. It was a huge success. Over the course of the games, some 210,000 people attended. That's remarkable when you think about the struggles of air travel at that period in time—the cost of air travel, even to get across from one side of Australia to the other—and the fact that Western Australia's population at the time was only some 800,000 people. We had 873 athletes representing some 35 nations performing in front of 30,000 fans day after day at Perry Lakes Stadium. It showcased the iconic parts of Western Australian life, with the road cycle race taking place in Kings Park. As Cynthia Robertson said in the Australian Women's Weekly in November 1962: 'It is no wonder the city is bursting—both at the seams and with pride. The pride has increased daily as more and more people have arrived by road, rail sea and air, and Perth has properly gotten into its international swing.' That's the power of having these major events here in Australia.

It is a power that this legislation protects for the future, to make sure that Australia continues to be seen as a strong and stable location for these international sporting events. One of the reasons Perth was so eager to host those games in 1962 was the hope it would help draw attention to the city and help grow the population. I think it's fair to say the games were a success: recently, Perry Lakes Stadium was demolished so more homes could be built to house Perth's ever-growing population.

Fortunately, Western Australia has a chance to build on our tradition with a number of upcoming sporting events. Recently, Perth was selected as a host city for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, an event this bill specifically caters for. This event will deliver millions of dollars worth of economic benefits and jobs for Western Australians, and it's one of the reasons I support the amendment moved by the member for Shortland identifying that there is so much more opportunity that the government could be out there grabbing for future events. There are so many things just like the Empire Games that are out there looking for a home in a post-pandemic world, where Australia could be the solution.

I want to draw the House's attention in particular to the search for a host for the 2027 Special Olympics. There is an opportunity for that to be hosted in Perth and there is, indeed, a committee that's been formed to explore the economic benefits and costs of Perth being the host for that. I recently met with them, and I was thoroughly impressed by not just how much they had thought through the needs of the participants but also how they had worked through the economic opportunities for Australia—not just for Perth and not just for Western Australia but for the entire country. It should be noted that while they weren't noticed as much as the Commonwealth Games in 1962, the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games that were hosted in that same year were also a proud achievement for Western Australia.

The 2027 Special Olympics will be an opportunity for Perth to again showcase its history as a place for inclusive sporting events. It's the largest humanitarian event in the world. It's not just a sporting activity; it is a global movement for inclusion. Some 8,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities compete, and 170 nations participate across 26 sports over 10 days. If that were to be held in Perth in Western Australia, it would be an opportunity to recognise and celebrate some 700,000 Australians who live with an intellectual disability. It would be a significant boost for Perth. It's got to be looked at carefully, and I know that the government here in Canberra are looking at it carefully, with their bureaucrats, and I wish them all the best in doing so.

Ultimately, this bill is about ensuring that the commercial opportunities of sport remain available to Australians. Without the protections of this bill, Australia would be unable to host the transformational events we've held in the past. While it's important that we have these protections, we must do more than simply punish those that use counterfeit or illegal products. Unfortunately, this government's legislation is too focused on punishment rather than promotion. We must be doing all we can to ensure the chances to celebrate our nation are taken advantage of. This might include creating specific logos for small businesses to use, to jump in on the excitement and channel the excitement of Australians into other engagements as well.

I've long said that, when it comes to Australia's art and culture, and promoting culture—and I mentioned earlier the importance of promoting culture and cultural institutions—there are also more opportunities for our diplomatic missions to do that abroad. When these major sporting events happen in Australia, you do find a renewed interest in other parts of the world, and we should make sure that we integrate that enthusiasm into not only the Olympic Games in 2032, as the previous speaker mentioned, but also other opportunities, and make sure that our diplomats are out there promoting Australia and Australian culture. It's got to be more than simply wearing an Australia face mask. We can't just continue to pay consultants millions of dollars to come up with logos, who then then tell us to slap a kangaroo on something. We should look at some of the exciting cultural aspects we have right now. For example, the unofficial ambassadors for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are Bluey and Bingo. We should make sure that our ambassadors are handing out a Bluey or a Bingo as they meet with world leaders. Maybe the Prime Minister could take a few in his suitcase when he travels to Glasgow at the end of this week.

Quorum formed.

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