Shearer David: 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 
Shearer David: 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:4294. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 It has been an outstanding Olympics and I want to join with Mr McCully in congratulating our team on its fantastic effort. We have been richly rewarded for those efforts with 13 medals. Six of those are gold and I was—along with everybody else in this House—thrilled to see Valerie Adams trade her silver in for a gold first thing this morning. It was justice after all of the effort that she has gone through over the past weeks. 
Our rowers have done us particularly proud and I too want to acknowledge Dick Tonks and his efforts for the rowing team. I single out Mahe Drysdale because I remember 4 years ago his being sick but getting across the line for a bronze medal and in this Olympics he was rewarded with a gold. Their success on the water is richly deserved. Rowing is a well-organised sport that has worked hard to attract and nurture young and talented students. 
Our sailors have performed outstandingly along with Lisa Carrington in the canoeing and watching Sarah Walker was an inspiration as she overcame her fears to take the silver medal in that mad dash on her BMX. Our equestrian team always does us proud and once again represented New Zealand with distinction. Our cyclists blew away their opponents with an exciting performance that saw them take home bronze medals as well. 
We are proud of all the New Zealanders who represented us at the London games. It has been a real triumph and has lifted the spirits of an entire country. Many of us have been so caught up with this that we have come rather bleary-eyed to work. I have to say that I have turned up late to a few meetings but explained that I had been watching the Olympics and they said: “Oh that’s OK then.” We have lost that excuse unfortunately. 
We managed to win only one gold 12 years ago at the 2000 Olympics and it has been a complete turn-round since that time. It is a result of a commitment to develop invest in and grow our high performance sports. This has taken some time and a long-term commitment to sport. It involves growing interest at a grassroots level identifying and investing in young talent exposing our sportspeople to international competition and using the best training methods to allow them to achieve at this highest level. 
I also want to pay tribute to the work of New Zealander David Holman. Many of you may not know who he is but he is the director of the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA. The World Anti-Doping Agency plays a key role in making sure our sports are clean and our athletes can compete fairly in a doping-free sporting environment. We thank David Hoffman for this work and— 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: Howman. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: —Howard sorry—for establishing New Zealand as a world leader in anti-doping. 
We are proud of our athletes and the spirit in which they compete. We thank them for their tremendous effort in London but we also thank all those who stand beside them: their families their coaches and the organisations that support them. In fact it is important to take a moment to thank all those New Zealanders who are involved in sports at every level. They give up their time their weekends with family and their energy because they love their sport. Their commitment allows us to develop athletes who are amongst the best in the world and we have seen the outcome of that commitment on the podiums in London over the past few weeks. Thank you to the entire Olympic team and all those who supported it for making these Olympics such a great one.