It’s great to be here, to be part of this tremendous welcome home to our Paralympic athletes. It is an honour to be with you. It is great to be able to say with so many of my parliamentary colleagues that every single Australian is proud of you.

 

Now, everyone who represents his or her country has achieved something extraordinary but for Paralympians, it’s not just a triumph of athleticism, it’s invariably a triumph of the human spirit as well and I have to say, whenever I mix with Paralympians, it seems to me that you are the happiest athletes of all. So congratulations, because sport should be joyous and you are joyous people.

 

As Stephanie pointed out, millions and millions of Australians shared your triumph, shared your excitement over the last few weeks but whether we were winning, whether we were losing, whether we were simply participating, every single one of you was magnificent.  Thank you for making every Australian so proud of you and so proud of your country.

 

[ends]