Debates Day 3 - Thursday 21 October 2010
Parliamentary Record 15
Debates for 11th Assembly 2008 - 2012; ParliamentNT; Parliamentary Record; 11th Assembly 2008 - 2012
2010-10-21
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DEBATES - Thursday 21 October 2010 world heritage site of the MacDonnell Ranges. I ask the minister to consider asking for the aesthetics of the antenna to change if it must go there and to give me an additional two weeks after the sittings of this parliament to consult with constituents in Larapinta to try to identify an alternate site which still provides the capabilities Telstra requires in this area. I will not go any further. I will be writing to the minister about this matter to ask if he will come to the party and assist us and the electors of Braitling electorate, in particular, Larapinta. Before I sit down, I wish my lovely wife a happy 10th wedding anniversary today. It is unlucky I cannot be home, but we all know our families help us out a lot in our life, both in politics and before politics. I am sorry I am not home, and I will see you when sittings are over at the end of next week. Mr BOHLIN (Drysdale): Madam Deputy Speaker, I will talk briefly on the Masters Games 2010 held in Alice Springs last week. As the shadow Sports minister, I was very grateful to participate and be amongst the people. Many of my colleagues were at the events; the Sports minister was there as well and the Chief Minister was at the opening ceremony. The event, without looking at the numbers of competitors and volunteers, was amazing. There is no doubt it really tips the bucket for Alice Springs to really kick the town along and help out the restaurants, pubs, clubs and sporting venues. It is a fantastic event. I went two years ago at the beginning of my parliamentary term and I thought it was a pretty amazing show then, but this year it was at another level. Having been involved in organising sporting events for some 10 years before getting into politics, I know these events do not happen without the volunteers. There were hundreds of volunteers, I think around the 400 mark. There were volunteers and ambassadors. It is not only the volunteers at the Masters; it is also the games ambassadors who make the event such a special one to go to, no matter which sport you watched - and I saw as many as I could. I will not list the sports because I could not get to all of them and do not want to make any one sport feel left out; there are only so many hours in a day and you cannot get to everything. There was a massive string of events and the volunteers and ambassadors made it work so well. Without the paid staff involved in the lead-up and organising the event - they did a fantastic job - the kudos go to the volunteers, because without them you would not have a sporting event. To the umpires - well done! Umpires at the Masters Games have to learn a different set of rules to understand what is going on; I have not been able to download it yet. I saw one netball game with an Alice Springs team playing with a fairly elderly lady, who I shall not name, wearing quite a costume of the Potato Crew - they will know about it. Elara, wife of the member for Greatorex, was involved in the Potato Crew, as I call them. She went on the court in the last quarter with a chair, plonked the chair down on the edge of the court in her zone, sat down and crossed her legs, with a pina colada or similar drink, whilst the rest of the people played around her. I have this fantastic photo of the girls in the background shooting for goal whilst this lady sits on the court. That is the type of spirit behind the games. There is a serious side, but really it is about a friendly games atmosphere where everyone gets a fair chance. Most members who participated did rather well. The best member of parliament was the member for Katherine who took home a bronze, two silvers and a gold, all in track athletics. He did a fantastic job, and I know other members also won medals. I won two bronze medals, and am extremely proud of them; at games of that calibre you must be proud of any medal. You have to be proud just to attend and participate. Mine was in tenpin bowling. I was asked to participate by the Tenpin Bowling Association as I had shown some interest and, with five weeks of training - thank you, Cheryl, you are a darling - we came home with two bronze medals, which is amazing. To my team involved in two of those bronze medals, thank you for your support; thank you for all the Dustbowl support, it was amazing. I am proud of those medals, but I am proud and honoured to have given out hundreds of medals at the games. I was lucky enough to hand out medals at many ceremonies and go to dinners where people were being presented with medals - such as the motorcycles. I handed out medals for tenpin bowling and athletics. I am sure there were hundreds - it felt like hundreds - of medals handed out. That made me extremely proud and honoured because I was able to give something to the people to make them feel really proud of themselves; and I believe they should be. The benefit of the friendly games is you can make peoples day - you can make peoples year; and they will talk about that until they return. Well done to all those who won medals; you deserve it in whichever sport, in whichever creation of that sport, you played. There is another side to the Masters Games which seems to go unnoticed unless you are there; the Masters Games seems to have picked up this patriotic belief in, and support of, the 6551