CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS
Ms BRISKEY (Maribyrnong) (09:39): Last week I had the pleasure of hosting an afternoon tea in my office for the newest recipients of the local sporting champions grants. Today I want to recognise this remarkable group of young athletes from Maribyrnong in this parliament. The Local Sporting Champions program exists because representing your state or your country can be expensive, with flights, accommodation, equipment, competition fees and simply getting to where the event is being held.
The costs add up quickly, and, for a lot of families, they add up to the difference between an opportunity taken and an opportunity lost. Local Sporting Champions helps make sure a talented kid from Melbourne's north-west isn't held back by where they live or what their family can afford. I'm proud our community has so many young people stepping through the door, and what incredible young people they are.
Charlotte Dougherty has been selected to represent Australia at the IBSA Women's Blind Football Asia Championship. To wear the green and gold is the dream of so many athletes, and Charlotte has earned this through sheer resilience and hard work, which she has shown across her entire sporting journey. Hugo Hircoe also pulled on the green and gold at the Oceania wrestling championships, one of the toughest sports going around.
There's nowhere to hide once you step out onto the mat. Good on you, Hugo. We have two representing us in American football, a sport still finding its feet in Australia.
Brando Chakour will play for Victoria, while Oscar Dodds was first elected for the state championships and then went one better, earning selection to represent Australia in Auckland. There's Alexandra Webster, off to the Australia Juniors Curling Championships. Curling is a smaller sport here, without the infrastructure many others enjoy, and that makes reaching this national level even more impressive.
Well done, Alexandra. We also have real depth in the pool. Eve Dunstan, Hamish Keenan, Jessica Macdermott and Lola Jojic are all bound for the national championships, and Isaac Kelly has earned his place at the national schools triathlon championships, mastering three disciplines.
Behind each of these young people is a whole team—a parent driving to each training session, a sibling spending their weekends in the stands, a coach turning up early and staying late, and a local club that backs their kids year after year. None of these selections happen by accident, and none of them happen alone. They are the reward for years of hard work that most of us never see.
They all show the strength of the sporting community here in Melbourne's west. To every one of our recipients: you have represented Maribyrnong with real pride, and you should be proud of yourself. We certainly are.
Continue to give it everything you've got and show the country what the north-west of Melbourne can do.