Matters of Interest

Alderson, Mr S.

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (15:23): On 15 October, a long way from home in south-western Spain, a proud South Australian, Steven 'Spud' Alderson, made history by becoming the first ever autistic golfer to win a championship in the international G4D Tour. The G4D Tour is run alongside the PGA's European Tour and provides an opportunity for the best golfers with a disability around the globe to compete against each other at an elite international level.

Spud was not a favourite going into the tournament, but after entering the final day of competition with a two-shot lead, he managed to secure a remarkable nine-shot victory, finishing the tournament at seven under par. No other player finished the tournament below par. For an international debut, that is an incredible showing, but for anyone who is only hearing about him now, Spud's win at the G4D did not come out of nowhere. He claimed the South Australian All Abilities Championship in September along with several other notable victories, including the 2020 South Australian Men's Mid Amateur Championship and the 2022 Webex Player Series South Australia.

It was a pleasure for me to be able to join the Premier and the member for Mawson to welcome Spud to parliament just a few weeks ago. We heard firsthand from Spud how when he is not out dominating international events and travelling the world he is at his much beloved Willunga Golf Club. While the club has provided space for Spud to be just himself, unfortunately this has not always been the case for him. Spud has bravely shared his story—and it has gone viral on the internet—with the world, a story that is all too common for members of the autistic and autism communities, a story of being bullied just for being who he is, a story of being bullied due to the lack of knowledge of autism in the community.

Spud has always shared how he changed schools almost five times and left school at the age of just 15. It is because of stories like what Spud has shared with us and so many others that the Malinauskas government created a bold autism policy agenda, an agenda that continues to grow and work to make change and build knowledge in our schools, in our workplaces and across our community.

The Malinauskas Labor government is also proud to support Spud at an upcoming G4D event in Dubai, and I am delighted Spud has accepted our government's invitation to join the LIV Golf pro-am, where we look forward to cheering him on.

I asked Spud when I met him most recently what he would love to be remembered for in terms of his achievements. It was without hesitation that he said, 'I want to be an ambassador for the autistic community. I want to be able to change lives and for them not to experience what I experienced at school.' This is an incredible ambition of his and one that I am sure he is already achieving just by sharing his story.

Spud said if there was one other thing that the community in South Australia could do for him it is that any time they see him take a shot—I do not know much about golf—it is called the 'Spud bomb', so if you can cheer him on, and if you do see him playing golf at LIV please be sure to yell that one out.

As for anyone who achieves many high achievements in sport, no-one does it alone. Spud brought along with him to parliament Trent, his caddie. When Trent is not driving early morning shifts to and from the airport to make sure he can put food on the table for his family he is travelling with Spud to make sure that Spud can live out his dream. This is something he does from the kindness of his heart, something I know Spud is very appreciative of—and so is this government. So thank you to Trent and Spud.