Startline - Supporting women and girls in motorsport

Recently, I was asked to say a few words at a new event, advocating for greater awareness of women and girls in motorsport. We always try to support new events when they are catalysed by local residents from division 9 and held in our community.

On this occasion, Ella Pyyvaara from Gilston (and a teacher at Hillcrest), brought together a dozen volunteers and hosted an open day at the Mudgeeraba Community Centre where young people, in particular girls, could find out more about rally driving and other motorsport initiatives. It was a great day, and here’s some of the words I shared before the Q&A Panel.

Startline Q&A Panel discussion… media, driving and navigating in rally motorsport.

Good morning everyone, and thank you for having me here. As Ella said, my name is Glenn Tozer and I look after 45,000 people in the south-west of the city. I want to acknowledge my colleague Leon Rebello, Federal MP for McPherson, and thank him for making time to be here today.

Whenever we gather here we acknowledge the Kombumerri people as traditional custodians and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging… but this idea of “respect for elders” isn’t isolated just to First Nations people, even though we mention them first. I know that Kombumerri elders would want me to express respect to any elders from other communities here today, whether from cultural backgrounds or from sectors like motorsport, where people over many years have contributed their blood, sweat and tears to grassroots development of their passion. So, from Our First Nations people through me to you, thank you for being here today and for your efforts over so many years. We respect you.

It’s terrific to see people coming together to support something that is both exciting and important: creating more opportunities for women and girls to get involved in motorsport.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge Ella Pyyvaara for bringing today together.

Ella doesn’t just talk about women participating in motorsport. She’s out there driving rally cars and demonstrating, in a very practical way, that there’s absolutely no reason women and girls shouldn’t see a place for themselves in this sport.

And I think that visibility really matters. And she’s not doing it alone… there are a team of volunteers she has led to today and I want to show my appreciation to those guys too.

Because when you’re a young person thinking about what you might want to do, whether that’s a sport, a career, a trade, or something completely different, it’s much easier to imagine yourself doing it when you can see somebody a bit like you already doing it.

Motorsport has traditionally been a male-dominated environment. That doesn’t mean women and girls haven’t had the talent, the courage or the competitive instinct. Quite clearly, they have.

But sometimes opportunity doesn’t automatically follow talent.

And that’s why deliberately working towards greater gender equity in sectors where there has historically been an imbalance is important.

Gender equity isn’t about guaranteeing everyone the same outcome. It’s about making sure talent and ambition have a fair opportunity to get through the door.

And when we remove unnecessary barriers, we don’t just benefit the people who were previously underrepresented. We strengthen the whole sport.

We get a broader pool of talent, new competitors, new ideas, new supporters, and importantly, another generation of young people who can look at motorsport and think: “There’s a place here for me.”

Motorsport itself is also much broader than the person sitting behind the wheel.

There are opportunities across engineering, mechanics, event management, technology, logistics and the many people and organisations it takes to get a car and a team onto a track or ready for a rally stage.

So an event like this can potentially open quite a few doors.

And for the girls here today, I hope you take the opportunity to have a go, ask questions, meet people and perhaps discover something you hadn’t imagined yourself doing before.

You might discover a lifelong passion.

You might even discover you really, really love it.

And hopefully you’ll also see people like Ella and realise that the pathway is there.

So congratulations again to Ella and everyone who has helped make today possible.

Thank you for creating an opportunity for women and girls to step into motorsport, test themselves, build confidence and perhaps start changing what the next generation of Australian motorsport looks like.

Have a fantastic day, and I hope everyone enjoys the Q&A and the suspense for the prizes we’re handing out a bit later 😊 Thanks for trusting my office to support your idea!

Before the event began… motorsport clubs and booths to find out more.

While Ella is heading to Switzerland to continue her teaching career, we are hoping that the volunteers she brought together might consider another event in 2027 to continue to build momentum.