Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I have the unenviable task of following two Olympians! I will try and do that the best justice that I can. I'd also like to just bring a little bit of realism to the debate as well because, while ideally we would love sport to take place in a vacuum outside of the political landscape around it, sadly that's never going to be the case.

What we saw in 1979 in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was an event which led to the deaths of what is estimated to have been between one million and three million people. We saw an event which was very much an indication that the Cold War was still at its height and that the Soviets were still looking to expand their empire and to do everything they could to take the liberties, freedoms and democratic principles that we hold so dear away from people. It was under that cloud that very difficult decisions were taken as to whether our athletes, and also the athletes of many other countries, should go to the Moscow Olympics, because people had no doubt—no doubt whatsoever—that the Soviets would use the Olympics for their political purposes. If the Soviets weren't going to use the Olympics for their political purposes, you can understand that we would have had very different circumstances. But everything the Soviet Union did at that time was all about building their empire and trying to take liberties and freedoms away from countries right across the world. That's why difficult decisions had to be taken.

Those difficult decisions, which were taken by sporting organisations in this country and in other countries across the world, were taken by former Olympians. They were taken because they thought at the time that they were doing the right thing. I think it was important yesterday that we were able to acknowledge those who went and the treatment that they got, especially on their return, because no Australian deserves to be treated without respect. The fact that we were able to acknowledge that yesterday was incredibly important. It's also important, though, to recognise those who took the principled position not to attend, and some were of a very young age. Any who were forced to take a principled position, though—that doesn't sit easily with us.

So what we have to do is make sure that we understand the complexity with which these decisions were taken. Even though we can stand here today and say, 'This should never occur again,' I think we also have to understand the conflict there could be between us saying those words and the actual reality, because we could be faced with a situation like this again.

And I don't think any of us should underestimate that that could take place, because the sad reality is that trying to divorce life from sport and sport from life is nigh on impossible. We see that on a regular occurrence, even today. So what we have to do is make sure that we know and understand that what we always have to do is live with the ideal that we should always respect people, no matter the circumstances of the decisions that they've undertaken, especially when, ultimately, they're decisions of conscience.

We should treat the athletes who went and achieved the goal of being an Olympian with the respect they deserve. For those who didn't go, we should also acknowledge and respect the principles under which they took those decisions. To those who had to take those decisions, who had to put the geostrategic complexities of those times as part of the considerations that they took, to those Olympic sporting bodies who said yes or no—I say again there were Olympians who sat on those bodies. We need to acknowledge and understand the difficult decisions they had to take.

We've got to acknowledge and understand that, even though we would like these decisions to operate in a vacuum, that is never going to be the case. Human rights abuses, sadly, continue today, like they took place in 1979 and 1880. We also have to understand that, although the Olympic ideals are ideals that we would all love to see time and time again, especially when the Olympics take place, sadly there will be governments who will use the Olympics for political purposes. We cannot be blind to that.

I turn my attention, like the five-time Olympian before me did, to what's coming. We can all unite, rightly, with the two venues ahead of us. Los Angeles is coming up. And, to all those young Australians who are trying to qualify, who are trying to represent their country at the Los Angeles Olympics: I wish you all the best. There are young people in my electorate who are striving to represent our nation in Los Angeles and then in Brisbane. I hope your dreams and your desires come to fulfilment. Nothing would give me greater joy than to see you representing our country at those Olympics.

To everyone who is working tirelessly and hard and dedicating themself to try and be part of our team for the Brisbane Olympics: good luck. Representing your country at a home Olympics seems, to me, an outsider but a sport lover, like the greatest thing that you could ever achieve. We all saw that with Cathy Freeman in the Sydney Olympics. We hope that there are more Cathy Freemans when it comes to the Brisbane Olympics.

To all of those—and we shouldn't forget this—who have the huge task of making sure that the Brisbane Olympics are the greatest Olympics of all time, because that is the ideal—

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