Charlotte Walker (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I want to speak about a young South Australian named Archie. Archie was born with a serious heart condition. He had open-heart surgery at three months of age, and since then he's had four heart surgeries and 17 surgeries in total. That's not something you get used to. It's hospitals, procedures, recovery and a lot of time waiting, all before you're even old enough to understand why it's happening. For Archie, this isn't a story about overcoming something; it's just his life—regular appointments, living with scars, managing a body that needs more care than most and still being a kid at the same time. He's had to deal with a lot more than most kids his age, and the way he handles this is amazing. His attitude and joy are really infectious.

One of the things that Archie loves is cricket. In 2018, with the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Cricket Australia, Archie was named honorary co-captain of the Australian cricket team during a match against India. That meant walking out onto the field, meeting the players and being part of the day, not as a patient but as someone who genuinely belonged there. Those moments matter not because they magically fix everything—they can't—but because they cut through the medical routine and remind kids like Archie that their lives aren't defined by hospitals alone.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation does that work quietly and very well. It creates space for kids with serious illnesses to just be kids, even briefly. Cricket Australia choosing to be part of that also matters. It says something about what inclusion can look like when organisations follow through for their community. I'm not sharing Archie's story today just to make a point. Archie is living his life—heart condition and all—and finding room for the things he enjoys along the way, and I think it's worth us pausing to acknowledge that.