Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to talk about a great community event in my electorate and much more broadly in the western corridor: the annual Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge. It was formerly known as the Mall 2 Mall bike ride, and it has been running since 2001. It started in my electorate, and I am the patron of the organisation and the ride. It started with the Centenary of Federation Links in the Chain ride, with 30 local riders who thought they would mark the occasion and follow in the steps of the bicentenary ride that came through to Canberra. It grew to become the Mall 2 Mall with 120 riders, and then 350, and then 500, and then a thousand riders, and today we have got the Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge. You might ask why this ride is so popular and successful. There are a number of very good reasons. One is that it is linked to Ipswich city through the mayor, Paul Pisasale, and Ipswich Events Corporation. It is part of the festival that comes to Ipswich every year, and it is also about fundraising and doing some really great things for people. It is about linking the two cities, Brisbane and Ipswich; it is about having a bit of fun and getting families to cycle together; and it is about a message of fitness and also goodwill between the two cities.

I am very proud of what the ride has achieved over the past eight years. This year will be the ninth ride. We have done some really great things for our local community, and it is made up of so many great local people—some who are riders and some who are not. The Brisbane 2 Ipswich Challenge involves a whole range of people, including, of course, the thousand riders who actually ride the 50-odd kilometres between the two cities and raise funds for the Ipswich Hospital Foundation and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. But it is also made up of volunteers who just want to help out in their community and do their bit, like the local naval cadets run by Sharon and Allan McIntosh. Year in and year out, they cook the thousand burgers that we feed people after the ride. It is great to see them there giving a helping hand.

There is also the Goodna RSL services club, who are our major sponsor and who have been with us for a number of years, and there are other great supporters like Mix Events; Truck Cranes; John Grant, at Ipswich Central Motors; the Springfield Land Corporation; and the Yellow Jersey Bike Shop—to name just a small handful. There are so many supporters of this great community event.

We get people riding who are in their 70s, and we get people as young as 10 years old. People get out there on their brand new, very expensive bikes or their very old bikes from the back shed that they dust off. It is about families getting together. We often see mums and dads riding tandem bikes with little trailers so they can tow the kids behind as well. The Ipswich BMX Club get involved, and we get people from interstate, right up and down the east coast. It is amazing, when we get the registrations in, to see where all these people come from who want to support those two great local charities, the Ipswich Hospital Foundation and the Royal Children’s Hospital. We even get people from Canberra. Stephen Hodge, who is well known down here in the cycling world, comes up and rides and supports the ride as well. We get people from the Squadra team also.

There are so many great stories and great riders, and they all have a common theme. There are professional people like doctors and engineers and there are also tradies. They are all ordinary people who not only enjoy cycling but also want to contribute, through the sport that they enjoy, to help out the community. We have groups like FSlow out of Brisbane, a great bunch of riders who do a whole heap of community rides and try to do their bit for charity. We also have the Springfield Riders Group, who do more than just get together on a Sunday to have a coffee ride—or a bakery ride, as they are often referred to. We have people like Matt Britton, and I will single him out because he rode from Southport to Sydney to raise funds for cystic fibrosis. We have people like Allan Norsgaard, who just completed, on his own, a Brisbane to Sydney ride—and he is going to go and do another one because he wants to raise money for Legacy. These are people who really enjoy cycling but want to contribute to their community in some way.

There are so many good people involved. It is a real pleasure to be a part of this great group. I want to finish by saying that cycling has got a lot to offer. Not only is it a great community sport; it is great for fitness. It should also be treated as a great alternative transport—with the transport issues and problems we have in our cities—and it is a way of dealing with sustainability within our cities, greening our cities and making sure that a complete transport and sustainable cities plan involves cycling, walking and all forms of transport. In noting this great local community event, I also want to note the great contribution of so many people. (Time expired)