Thursday, 19 October 2023

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (09:49): I want to share the joy and utter exhilaration that I experienced on 29 September 2023, when I attended the AFL Grand Final at the MCG. I shared this joy with my sister Luisa and my brother William. Like many, my passion for the Collingwood Football Club is deeply rooted in my family’s migration story of war, hunger and grief. It is in this context that my grandparents migrated from northern Italy to Collingwood. They ran a wine shop just near the intersection with Gertrude Street. I am a generational Collingwood supporter, colour-coded by birth. The suburb of Collingwood’s history over the centuries is rooted in working-class pride – a culture of valuing community and helping each other often in the face of adversity and discrimination, and it is these values that I have seen refreshed at Collingwood Football Club in recent years: the inclusion of a women’s team and the progress on their reconciliation action plan. I note that the Wurundjeri word for magpie is ‘barrawarn’, which is the name of the club’s Indigenous programs. I want to congratulate the club and especially board president Jeff Browne, Craig Kelly, Craig McRae and club captain Darcy Moore. Perhaps it is time for us to establish a parliamentary friends of Collingwood.