Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to report to the House that this morning on a minus one degree, frosty Senate field, the New South Wales Parliamentary Blues defeated Queensland two tries to nothing for the second year in a row. In a game no-one takes seriously, except perhaps the member for Fisher, Mal Brough, we were lucky to be joined by former NRL stars Nathan Hindmarsh—co-captain with myself for New South Wales—and Petro Civoneciva, co-captain of Queensland with member for New England Barnaby 'One Direction' Joyce. We were also joined by NRL CEO Dave Smith who, very fairly, played equally badly for both teams. We thank them all for joining us.

Whilst I would like to say that sport was the winner, it probably wasn't. But I should praise a few strong performances. Member for Hume, 'Running Man' Angus Taylor, hit a tidy gap to streak away on the end of a beautiful ball held up perfectly and thrown by—who threw that ball? Was that me? Oh yes, it was me, but it would be hubris to point that out. He crashed through to score the try and win the game off the back of a great pass. Video referee Mark Simkin from the ABC confirms the pass left the hands backwards, and we all know video referees never get it wrong! It is also true what they say about the member for Charlton, Pat Conroy: he ain't pretty—he definitely ain't pretty—but he did look pretty good as he stepped around the member for Forde, Bert 'Beattie Slayer' van Manen, and crashed over in the 80th minute to seal the win in style. The omens are auspicious, the portents are awesome, as 100,000 true Blues fans tonight turn out at ANZ Stadium for the New South Wales side to break the drought and deliver not just this parliamentary trophy but the real trophy tonight to New South Wales.