A
ustralia’s most successful
Paralympian, the 30-year-
old former ‘superfish’ next
month celebrates his first year as
“Every day is an opportunity and a privilege
and it’s your responsibility to work hard and
do what you can."
a Member of the South Australian
and Vivienne taught him the value of During his 16-year swimming
independence and self-belief from a career, he swam millions of laps,
for Colton in March 2018, winning young age. He learned to tie his own worked on his strengths and
the beachside seat for the SA Liberal shoes, open jars and other day-to- weaknesses, and worked with coach
Party after it had been held by Labor day tasks just like any other child. Pete Bishop on techniques that
In his maiden Parliamentary compensated for the absence of
Parliament.
Matt was elected as the Member
for 16 years.
speech, he told his new colleagues: his left arm. He rose at 4am every
between swimming and campaigning “Learning to do these things by myself day, with his dad undertaking early
… lap by lap, door to door, there’s a and understanding that I should not morning taxi duties.
lot of repetition, a lot of long hours rely on others was critical”.
“There’s some similarities
He went on to represent Australia
Matt first learned to swim as a at three Paralympic Games, Athens
young child, for water safety reasons in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and London
local people during the campaign, as the family had a backyard pool. in 2012, winning 13 gold medals –
listening and taking constituent views But it soon became evident he had and total of 23 medals – to be the
on board. Now 11 months into the talent and his passion for the sport country’s most successful Paralympian.
job of MP, he remains committed grew as he raced and beat able- to engaging with locals, to door bodied swimmers.
and hard work,” he said.
Matt spoke with thousands of
Matt said naming his favourite
Paralympic moment is “easy”.
knocking, to holding community
meetings, and to simply ‘turning up’
for his community.
He said he’s enjoying the job,
Matt in his beachside
electorate (at left), and
giving a speech.
meeting new people every day and
getting stuck into issues like coastal
management.
“There’s no textbook on how
to be an MP, so I guess the biggest
challenge is that it’s a learning
process, as everyone puts their
individual spin on how they go about
the job,” he said.
“Every day is an opportunity and
a privilege and it’s your responsibility
to work hard and do what you can
every day.”
Born with a congenital arm
amputation, Matt’s parents Peter
linkonline.com.au
interview
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