McCully Murray: Motions — New Zealand Defence Force—Deaths of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone in Afghanistan 2012 Olympic Games—Success of New Zealand Team 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McCully Murray: Motions — New Zealand Defence Force—Deaths of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone in Afghanistan 2012 Olympic Games—Success of New Zealand Team 
[Sitting date: 14 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4293. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY (Minister for Sport and Recreation) 
: 
 I seek leave to move a motion without notice congratulating the members of the 2012 New Zealand Olympic Team. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none. 
Hon MURRAY McCULLY 
: I move  
That this House congratulate the members of the 2012 New Zealand Olympic team on their outstanding performance achieving six gold medals two silver and five bronze and finishing ranked 15th in the world 
. I believe that by any standards the 2012 New Zealand Olympic campaign can be judged to have been a substantial success. I want to on behalf of the Government acknowledge all of the athletes who were members of that team and congratulate them collectively on their achievement. In particular I want to congratulate the 13 athletes or teams that won medals. 
I was present in London for 3 or 4 days and the overwhelming impression that you got was one of the level of difficulty the sheer pressure to perform in such a challenging environment. For our people to have succeeded on such a scale against very difficult odds is a very significant achievement indeed. Six gold medals—one of which came along a little later than the others—two silver and five bronze are an outstanding achievement by any standards. It places New Zealand 15th overall on the tally of Olympic medals achieved in 2012 and on a per capita basis—and I think it is worth doing this piece of arithmetic from time to time—I understand that we finished fourth by comparison with all other countries. 
I want to recognise that this effort was something that was shared by more than just those who performed on the field. I want to recognise the coaches the support staff and the families who played such an important part in our Olympic performance. Although it is always difficult to single out any individual achievement I do want to note the achievement of the rowing head coach Dick Tonks whose previous successes on the international stage are well known but whose success at the 2012 Olympics was simply remarkable. 
I think it is fitting that we should recognise that many members of the team achieved personal milestones—some personal bests—and it is worth noting that by the end of the games New Zealand participants had achieved 35 top eight finishes and 72 in the top 16. All of this leaves New Zealand well placed for Rio in 2016. I think it is reasonably well known that we are part-way through a major expansion of high performance facilities and services towards enhancing targeted sports selected by High Performance Sport New Zealand. The notable feature of these games was the outstanding success of the rowers who have had the benefit of world-class high performance facilities for most of the build-up period and outstanding coaching and support services. If we are able to achieve on the strength of the enhanced facilities and services now embarked upon anything like the return that we have seen from rowing at these games that augurs extremely well for the future. Again I offer on behalf of the Government our congratulations to all of the members of the 2012 Olympic team.