Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In parliament this week, I went to an event hosted by the Speaker to launch the Great Aussie Athlete BBQ. It was a celebration of sport, summer and mateship, all while raising vital funds for the Aussie Athlete Fund. Funds raised help cover training, travel, coaching, wellbeing and access to sport for young athletes across the country. We are in the middle of the Winter Olympics and building towards the summer games in Brisbane in 2032, and it has never been more important not just to watch with pride and cheer from the sidelines but to get involved.

I shouldn't have been surprised that the first great athlete I spotted at the event was from Shepparton, in my own electorate of Nicholls. Louise Dobson played 230 international hockey games for Australia, including as part of the gold-medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Louise and I will be hosting an Aussie athletes fundraising barbecue in Shepparton later this year. Like so many great athletes to emerge from the Goulburn-Murray region, Louise started her career at a local club, the Windangs Hockey Club in the Shepparton Hockey Association, and she honed her skills by training and playing on community facilities.

So did Adem Yze, the current coach of the Richmond Football Club and former Melbourne champ, who was in Parliament House last night. He's a product of Shepparton's proud Albanian community. Adem's footy career didn't get off to a great start, because he turned up to play in baggy boardshorts and he copped a bit of cheek from the spectators. But then he kicked 20 goals, which is why people now remember the shorts. Adem played at Shepparton United before being drafted to Melbourne, and he played 271 senior games for the Demons, including a run of 226 consecutive games.

A BMX track was built in Shepparton in 1980, as that sport took off. Leigh Egan was just a kid, but he was a strong and fearless racer. He was soon dominating and winning Victorian and Australian titles. He went to the world champs in Japan in 1984 and not only won world 17 class, but he beat the open class field to become Australia's first elite men's BMX world champion.

There are dozens of elite athletes from a broad range of sports in the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame. They all grew up in an active community that supported their dreams, and they had good facilities to train on and to be coached on.

Julie Gross is an example. She grew up in Tatura and took up basketball in 1971 at high school. She played at the Army Drill Hall, before a basketball stadium was built later that year. She went on to represent Australia at the world championships in Colombia and was offered a scholarship with Louisiana State University, where she is now a hall-of-famer.

The then new stadium that Julie played in is now more than 50 years old, and it desperately needs an upgrade and expansion to cater for growth in basketball and other sports. The coalition committed $20 million to that before the last election. The government must support our future champions by funding the facilities they need to participate into the future.