This morning, I saw the most important sporting fixture on the parliamentary calendar: the parliamentary state-of-origin touch game! New South Wales faced huge odds—we faced a Queensland team captained by a New South Wales MP, the member for New England. We were severely understrength, missing key stalwarts such as the members for Mitchell, Riverina and Grayndler.
The game had everything: first off, I wish the member for Forde a speedy recovery from his trip to the hospital. We had our first ever sin binning in the history of the comp, and I apologise to the refs: I thoroughly deserved it! Most importantly, we had a mighty New South Wales victory, 3-2, with the final try scored in the last minute. I applaud the try scorers: Ben Leeson from the member for Kingsford Smith's office; Josh Lloyd from the Leader of the Opposition's office; and I was lucky enough to grab the third in the final minute.
Thanks to the referees for doing a great job and thanks to the National Rugby League for putting this game on. It's a really important way of bringing parliamentarians together and emphasising how important sport is to the broader community. I hope this bodes well for Sunday night, where the Blues will be fighting hard to win the series 2-0. All I can say is go the Blues!