Legislative Assembly

9480 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Wednesday 1 November 2000 ______ Mr Speaker (The Hon. John Henry Murray) took the chair at 10.00 a.m. Mr Speaker offered the Prayer. SYDNEY 2000 PARALYMPIC GAMES SUCCESS Mr CARR (Maroubra—Premier, Minister for the Arts, and Minister for Citizenship) [10.00 a.m.]: I move: That this House notes the worldwide recognition that the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games were the best ever conducted and expresses its thanks to the many Australians who made this possible, including: (1) all those responsible for Sydney’s successful bid to host the Paralympic Games, including the previous Coalition Government; (2) the many hundreds of thousands of people in both paid and volunteer roles who directly or indirectly contributed to the successful delivery of this massive event; (3) Australia's Paralympic athletes who not only produced the nation's best ever performance at a Paralympic Games but produced the best result ever by any Paralympic team from any country; and (4) the people of New South Wales who enthusiastically supported the Paralympians from around the world, warmly welcomed visitors to our State and accepted the inevitable inconveniences by an event of this size with great tolerance and good humour. We have an opportunity as a community to reflect on the wonderful success of the Paralympics. Some of you might have been at a function that we held three or four months ago in the parliamentary foyer with the organisers of the Paralympics. Members from both sides of the House were apprehensive about the ticket sales that would be achieved for the Games. We contemplated that there might have to be a special promotion of the Paralympics to get the people of this State to buy tickets in the same numbers that they would have been expected to buy for the Olympics. It is fascinating that none of those special appeals were required because the people of New South Wales—indeed, the people of Australia—just fell in behind the Paralympics as one might have dreamed they would. They gave these Games fantastic support. So in any measure of appreciation we must begin by saying that the people of this State and the people of Australia swung behind the Paralympics in a wonderful fashion. It is worth noting that more than 1.1 million tickets were sold, twice the number sold at Atlanta in 1996. So twice the number of tickets were sold here as were sold at the previous Paralympic Games. The second point I want to dwell on is that all the investment we made in the Olympic facilities proved of immense value in the Paralympics. By all accounts the Paralympians enjoyed the Olympic village at Homebush Bay and they appreciated the quality of the accommodation—those who had been at a number of previous Games acknowledged that this was the best ever accommodation provided for Paralympians. We have a great deal of time for the organisers of the Atlanta Paralympics but we cannot but help make contrasts between the attention paid to the food and accommodation for the athletes at the Atlanta Paralympics and at ours. We measured up very well. Our splendid stadium, the multiuse arena, the Superdome, the aquatic centre—all the facilities that the people of New South Wales invested in at Homebush Bay—proved of outstanding value for the Paralympic Games. The transport arrangements worked very well. They were different from those put in place for the Olympics but they delivered the huge crowds to the venues. On the two days that I spent out there looking at events I was struck by the vast number of schoolchildren attending the Paralympics. I think that this is having a big impact on the way in which our young people view people with disabilities and their right to access and participate in all walks of life. Our schoolchildren were there cheering as these elite athletes competed in the events. Their attitude towards people with disabilities must be changed for all time. The old-fashioned discrimination, hostility or bullying that we might have seen directed at young people with disabilities in school grounds and classrooms should be a thing of the past. We might have witnessed a seismic shift in the way our community views people who live with disabilities. That will be an interesting thing to measure and to chart in the years ahead. 1 November 2000 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 9481 Anyone who looked like an athlete at the Paralympic Games was a target for autograph hunters. I do not believe that the disability factor was foremost for spectators; they were just there, thrilled by the athletic competition. That quality of competition and accomplishment overrode the issue of impairment. When it comes down to it, the massive crowds at the Sydney Paralympic Games were another indication of the Australian love of sport, but also of the surge of support, pride and unity in this country at the fact that we were hosting the Olympics and the Paralympics. The crowds embraced it. Four hundred thousand school students from across Australia went to the Paralympic Games. They filled the Olympic stadium, the aquatic centre and the hockey centre to watch football. They filled the pavilions and the tennis centre and they swept up the crowds in their enthusiasm to see as many different sports as they could all in one day. Nine hundred students from across Australia were medal bearers. They included students from Cobar public school, Hamilton Primary School and the old Guildford public school. More than 3,500 students took part in the opening ceremony. One of the great legacies of the Sydney Paralympics is this new generation of young people aware and educated and their prejudices about disability challenged. Their memories will last for a lifetime. Who could forget Alcino Pereira, the cerebral palsy Paralympian from East Timor, who ran in the T38 5,000 metres ? He had four laps to go when the others in the race had finished. The crowd urged him on, even when he was disqualified after he left the track to join the winners in their celebrations. And who could forget the Australians—Siobhan Paton, six gold medals, named Paralympian of the Year; Timothy Sullivan, five gold medals and five world records; Lisa McIntosh, Alison Quinn and Katrina Webb won gold, silver and bronze in the T38 200 metres, Neil Fuller, four gold and one bronze and flag bearer at the closing ceremony; Lisa Llorens, three gold and one silver; Greg Smith, five gold medals; Louise Sauvage, two gold and one silver. All these were inspirational performances. I was curious about the origins of the Paralympics. The forerunner was held in Stoke, England, in July 1948. Dr Ludwig Guttman, a neurosurgeon, the father of disabled sport, was the founder of the Paralympics. He saw that competition provided real physical and mental benefit to his patients, many of whom had been maimed during World War II. The first official Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960, with 400 athletes from 23 countries, all in wheelchairs. In Sydney there were 4,000 athletes from 125 countries competing in six disability categories in 18 different sports. Australians again can be full of pride at the fact that this event was described as the best ever. There is a surge of pride throughout our country at the fact that we hosted something that many great countries in the world have hosted, but ours came up, according to objective observers, as the best ever. We did not relax after hosting the best ever Olympics; we just went on, shouldered the other responsibilities and said, "The Paralympics will also be the best ever. We will make special transport arrangements and we will see that there is no slackening off of the volunteer effort. We will see that those rail workers who put in a sterling effort during the Olympics are just as motivated and just as proud. We will see that the special arrangements work to get the crowds there. We will ensure that there are 15,000 volunteers, all of them proudly motivated and on location to help people to the events. We will ensure that it is a great and memorable event for schoolchildren, some of whom will be at Homebush." When I was at Homebush I met some boys and girls from Homebush Primary School. I said, "You ought to be proud. You have got the best sporting facilities of any school in the world. You have all this in your backyard." Schools all over the State enjoy those facilities. But what another thrill of pride the Australian people must be experiencing. Having pulled off the Olympics, they pulled off these great Paralympics. CNN used one word to describe them: phenomenal. I congratulate the Minister for the Olympics, and I congratulate the previous Government on taking the Paralympics as seriously as it did the Olympics. I congratulate all the volunteers and all the paid people. I congratulate the athletes, not just those who walked away with medals, but all who participated. I congratulate the sporting officials and all those Australians who were mobilised and motivated. But beyond that, I congratulate the Australian people, especially those in New South Wales, for just saying, "We will do this, and we will do this to a standard of excellence." There is another surge of national pride throughout this country in the wake of these Games, described around the world as the very best the world has seen. I send a message to all Australians: We can do it. We can undertake any task. Give us a tough task.

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