ADJOURNMENT
Mr NG (Menzies) (13:15): Australia rightly celebrates our sporting women and men for doing us proud on the world stage—our Olympians, our Commonwealth Games athletes, the Socceroos, the Matildas, the Diamonds. But today I want to tell the House about a group of athletes that deserve far more recognition than they currently receive. In particular, I'd like to tell the House about one remarkable young athlete, Isabella from my community in Bulleen.
Isabella was diagnosed with mild-to-moderate hearing loss at birth. She was fitted with a hearing aid at just three months of age, and, with early intervention and the support of family and dedicated professionals, she grew up doing everything other kids in my community in Menzies do. She went to mainstream schools.
She did gymnastics, dancing and music. She played basketball for the Bulleen Boomers using a device called Roger, a microphone worn by her teachers and coaches that transmitted sounds directly into her hearing aid. At around 10 or 11 years of age, Isabella's hearing began to decline, and it declined markedly.
Her hearing loss is now described as severe to profound. In December this year, Isabella will receive a cochlear implant. In 2024, there was a bit of a turning point in Isabella's life.
Her basketball coach mentioned that there was an Australian deaf basketball team and that she'd been invited to a training session. When she turned up, she found not just a team of great athletes but a place where she was able to fit in with people who understood her experiences. A team had already been selected for the 2024 Asia-Pacific Deaf Basketball Championships here in Melbourne, so Isabella stayed on as a training partner.
Weeks out from the tournament, the coach asked if she would like to play. She was the second youngest athlete selected at 15 years old. For 10 days, she lived away from home for the very first time, staying with her teammates near the State Basketball Centre.
The Geckos, the team she was playing in, won silver and qualified for the Deaflympics. Isabella and her teammates trained hard for over nine months to represent Australia in Tokyo. In November last year, she walked in the opening ceremony in front of the Prime Minister of Japan, the governor of Tokyo, and the Prince and Princess of Japan.
The Australian Deaflympics squad was hosted for dinner at our embassy. She met deaf athletes from every corner of the globe, and Australia finished eighth in the world in that tournament. Isabella also qualified for the under-21 team, the Ringtails, who travelled to Lublin, Poland for the under-21 World Deaf Basketball Championships in June this year.
There, Isabella was chosen as one of Australia's two flag-bearers. She was named in the starting five. She played every game in a tournament despite a serious shoulder injury sustained in the very first match.
Australia narrowly missed a medal, falling to the host nation Poland in the bronze medal match, but Isabella brought home the Fair Play Award. What strikes me most about Isabella's story is not her being able to play basketball on the world stage and travel, remarkable as that is for a teenager from Bulleen; it is that in deaf basketball she has found a community that understand her challenges and have given her a new and different feeling of belonging.
Isabella's remarkable achievements are also thanks to her family; her parents, Suz and Dave; and the families of her teammates, who have funded every trip overseas and every training session, borne every expense, taken her to training and accompanied her on trips. Next year, the geckos will compete at the 2027 World Deaf Basketball Championships in Pescara, Italy.
I know the people of Menzies like myself will be cheering Isabella on. To Isabella; to her parents, Suz and Dave; and to every player who has worn the green and gold for the Geckos and the Ringtails at the Deaflympics, thank you for representing our community, for representing Australia and for doing us proud. I'd also like to acknowledge my friend the member for Banks, who this morning hosted an event with the organisation 54 reasons, as well as Matt Tyler and Kate Fitz-Gibbon, to talk about how we can better support young people who are experiencing family violence.
As always, Matt and Kate released an incredible report backed by very strong research and consultation with the sector. Of course, we're currently consulting as a government on the second action plan to address violence against women and children. Kate and Matt always make important contributions to this debate, and I'd like to acknowledge their work in things like the Adolescent Man Box and in this important report.