Over the 20 or so years that I have known him, Chris Peters was more than a consummate professional, he was a loyal Canberran and passionately committed to supporting the membership he represented. While this meant we didn’t always agree, given my background within the union movement, over that time Chris and I have been [...]
Blog
About time! Women in sport and recreation in Australia
Today I announced the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry report, About time! Women in sport and recreation in Australia. As a woman who is passionate about Australian sport, I think it is incredibly important that we encourage female participation across all sports at both grass roots and professional levels. In recent [...]
Tackling doping in sport
News of the explosive report released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) earlier this month has rocked the cycling world to its core. Lovers of sport have been left reeling and now face the stark realisation that sophisticated doping infiltrated road racing at an elite level. The scandal has devastated fans, damned the legacy [...]
Good progress on innovative sports infrastructure
Today I had two opportunities to see the impact federal government funding is having on infrastructure for elite and community sport in Victoria. I started my day off in Geelong with my two colleagues, Richard Marles, Member for Corio and Darren Cheeseman, Member for Corangamite for a presenatation and tour of the redevelopment happening [...]
Behind the scenes at ABCTV
Every morning and evening, Australians are able to experience the Paralympic Games thanks to the coverage provided by ABCTV. Yesterday I was able to have a look behind the scenes with Head of Sport and Major Events Justin Holdforth as my guide. Lucky for me, part of the behind the scenes tour deal was to pop [...]
Aussie preparation pays off
One week in and our Aussie team is having a fantastic Paralympics! In true innovative Australian style, the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) has drawn on past experience and applied those lessons to the London Games. One of the important innovations has been the approach to team preparation. For the first time the Australian Paralympic Committee [...]
Settled my bet, with help from Howard Croker!
Yesterday I settled my bet with the UK Sports Minister, Hugh Robertson. Placed in Melbourne earlier this year in the spirit of the fierce sporting rivalry between Aussies and Brits, the bet was which country would win more gold medals at the Olympics. Needless to say, we all know TeamGB clocked up more gold, often [...]
Capturing Paralympic History
Sitting next to Tony Naar at the velodrome, we started talking about the history of the Australian Paralympic Movement. Tony is the general manager of knowledge services at the APC. (Australian Paralympic Committee) We were cheering on Aussies Felicity Johnson and Stephanie Morton as they won a spectacular gold medal in the women’s B 1km [...]
Let the Paralympics Begin!
The Paralympics have sold 2.4 million tickets. Due to demand they released 70 thousand more tickets and 50 thousand were snatched up in three hours! These impressive sales show just how excited people are here about the paralympics. Deputy PM Nick Clegg at an earlier reception made the point that after the buzz of the [...]
New national anti-racism strategy
Today, I was proud to join the Attorney-General Nicola Roxon to launch Australia’s new national anti-racism strategy, ‘Racism, it stops with me’. It’s a positive campaign that calls on all Australians to say no to racism and it was a key component of the Gillard Government’s multicultural policy, The People of Australia. As a Government [...]
