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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-05-31 Daily Xml
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Murray, Ms E.

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (15:37): I rise to acknowledge the commitment of an especially dedicated person in my community. Emma Murray is the head coach of Hub Gymnastics, based at the Paul Murray Recreation Centre in O'Halloran Hill. Earlier this year, Emma was awarded the Young Women's Community and Spirit Award by the International Women's Day Committee of South Australia at the Adelaide Town Hall. The award recognises outstanding achievements and dedication of young South Australian women.

Emma was nominated by the wonderful member for Hurtle Vale, Ms Nat Cook, and is a truly deserving winner. It was no surprise to me that Emma won this award. She is a fierce advocate for her community and for gymnastics in the south. Over the past few years, I have witnessed Emma invite just about every politician she could to see their facilities, to see the talent of their athletes and to see the opportunity that would be possible if they could just get the support that they needed to expand and accommodate not just the 700 members already utilising the gymnastics club but the 500 young locals waiting on their waitlist to join this fantastic club.

I have also witnessed the look of disappointment and frustration on Emma's face every time she saw another footy club receiving grants and gymnastics missing out. But Emma's relentless dedication to her club and to the gymnastics community has secured Hub Gymnastics a $3 million investment from this government as well as an additional $1 million investment from the federal government. The expansion the club is planning will see the combined vision of her father, the late Paul Murray, and the club membership finally realised.

Like Emma, Paul, who was coach at the club for 23 years and a great advocate for the club and the gymnastics community. In fact, Paul was the first person to speak with me when I was elected Mayor of the City of Onkaparinga four years ago, advocating for his club and the much-needed expansion. It was a huge loss to the Hub Gymnastics family and the wider community when we lost Paul in 2021. He had an enormous impact on our community and will be dearly missed.

Earlier this year, the council renamed the facility the Paul Murray Recreation Centre in honour of Paul's significant contribution to the club and to the Onkaparinga community. I know that Paul would be so proud of what Emma and the Hub Gymnastics committee have achieved for their club. It is obviously not just gymnastics that runs through the veins of the Murray family but an unstoppable dedication to community.

The club has been a huge success over recent years. They have embarked on delivering new programs for the community. They offer school holiday recreation gymnastics to the public and primary school OSHC. The club also runs after school and in-lesson gymnastics programs under the Australian Sports Commission Sporting Schools program. More recently, the club has expanded its Kindergym program to include MiniGym as a pathway to their recreation program. The new upgrades will see the Kindergym further expanded to accommodate many more in our community.

The club says that everything they do is about achieving their vision of providing the best possible support to their gymnasts and the best opportunities for their club and community to grow. We are lucky to have Hub Gymnastics in our community and particularly fortunate to have community heroes like Paul and Emma Murray fighting for our community's fair share to secure quality sporting facilities for our young athletes.

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