Matt Smith (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Seven years ago, Jen Rees walked into my office while I was still working at Sport and Rec in Cairns. She pitched an idea that she was going to bring wheelchair tennis to Cairns, creating a program known as Run and Roll. Run and Roll pairs able-bodied athletes with chair athletes in a modified game of tennis. The goal was simple: create an opportunity for kids to play with their friends—nothing more, nothing less. Working with Tennis Queensland and local tennis clubs, Jen set about creating the program and finding chairs, space and coaches. To launch the program, Olympic gold medallist and four-time Australian Open champion Heath Davidson came to Cairns to show the participants what was possible.

One of the attendees was a youngster named Ben Wenzel. Ben was able to spend some time with Heath, and the program took off. As the program went along, Fred Lay, a coach from the Northern Beaches of Cairns, took the opportunity to expand his coaching knowledge and became an accredited wheelchair coach. This provided 11-year-old Ben with the ability to train, improve his game and be more competitive with his friends. Had that been the end of the story, it would have been a truly exceptional program. But Ben had found his thing. Ben has made numerous Australian teams and travelled the world, and last year he became one of the US Open junior doubles champions, the first junior open champion in Australian history. He has gone from strength to strength. This year, he will be participating in the US Open in the open draw for wheelchair tennis, a fantastic achievement for young Ben.

But none of this happens in a vacuum. This was about good people doing good things for their community and providing Ben with these opportunities. Ben is to be congratulated for the hard work, the sacrifice and the dedication that has placed him into a spot where he breathes rare air that most of us never even get to. But Jen needs to be congratulated too. She took an opportunity, she found a way and she delivered for that young man so he can live out his dreams and we can cheer him on as proud Australians. Fred deserves congratulations for taking the time and expanding his knowledge so that he could give this young man an opportunity—and he's grabbed it with both hands. We wish Ben all the best from all of Leichhardt. We will be watching him very closely. Congratulations to Ben, and congratulations to his family.

A division having been ca lled in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16:46 to 16:57