Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, as we stand here, day 5 of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is coming to a close. I want to take this opportunity to recognise all of our amazing athletes competing in Birmingham. Four hundred and thirty Australians are over there, and they include 76 of our incredible and inspiring para-athletes. So far, we have 106 medals, and 42 of those medals are gold. That makes us No. 1 in Birmingham at the moment.

Sport is so important to the Australian lifestyle. It is a quintessential part of the way of life in this country. So it has been absolutely amazing and inspiring to watch these incredible athletes perform on the international stage, because they demonstrate the importance and the benefits of an active and healthy lifestyle, and the physical and mental benefits of sport and good health, as well as the great community spirit and wellbeing they generate back here in Australia. We are a proud sporting nation, and it's been great to see so many Australians getting behind our athletes over there in Birmingham as we cheer them on to ever-increasing levels of success and numbers of successes.

So congratulations, on behalf of Australia, to every single athlete that was selected to go to Birmingham. Supercongratulations to those that have won medals, particularly to Emma McKeon. What an amazing Australian athlete. She is now the most successful Commonwealth Games athlete in history, having broken so many records there. Congratulations also to Jessica Stenson, from my home state in South Australia, who we all remember as Jessica Trengrove, who won a gold medal in the women's marathon. I give a big shout-out to both the men's and the women's three-by-three chair basketball teams—exceptional efforts, taking home a gold and a silver. We encourage all Australians to support our great Aussie athletes over the next few days.