Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 18 April, I was very pleased to host my annual Sports President evening held at the newly revitalised and redeveloped Avalon Airport Oval, or Chirnside Park as we know it. It's an opportunity to share sporting success in our region and for presidents to network, get to know one another and discuss future opportunities for our sporting associations, clubs and teams. We heard from the Werribee Basketball Association, which has been named Basketball Victoria's Association of the Year. President, Paul Jones, gave us a terrific five-minute insight into the way our basketball association has grown young people's participation in the game. It was a fabulous evening. We got to see the new development, of course. I have to stop and reflect on the first home game that was held by the Werribee Football Club at the redeveloped ground. After a year on the road, it was great to be back at Chirnside Park. The community atmosphere was absolutely phenomenal. I hope the visiting coaches and teams are enjoying the new facilities as much as our senior coach, John Lamont, and the Werribee Football Club players are enjoying the new facilities. I also hope that the media are enjoying the new facilities at Chirnside Park.

The evening for the local sporting champions is also an opportunity to celebrate the grant recipients for the year. These young people have excelled at their chosen sport, competing at national and international championships. This year, we celebrated Kaman Malou, Samuel Clifford, Samuel Reale, Catherine Mashalidis, Catherine Huell, Noah Borg, Divid Palu, Compton Fautimau, Rory Pretty, Tai Pretty, Joshua Gomes, Nicholas Masini, Noah Cooney, Cartier Vasta, Jake Wallis, Aaron Lewer, Guillaume Chianpen, Cooper Hillyer, Ebony Dodemaide, Amy Kurkowski, Xaviour Taufa, Tevita Mapa, Lemau Maiava-Tapusoa, Brendan Wilson, Charli Blackborrow, Katu Little, Jotham Kuku, Sebastian Weickhardt, Daniel Roberts, Jai Copland, Joshua Byrne, Emmet Healey, Haloti Fonua, Sophia Potter and Emmason McCurley. They all represented not just our community but the state or their country in a range of sports.

In our community, we build community every day. It's the volunteers in our community, the people who organise sport and community activities, who help us grow our great multicultural and cohesive society. We're a growth corridor. The work is hard, the work is long and the work is absolutely important. I thank all of the people involved in community sport in the seat of Lalor for their hard work.