Speeches
Thursday, 02 July 2026
Launch of the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Centre building
I am pleased to be here today for the launch of the new home of the Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Centre for Women's Sport.
I thank Marj’s family for being here with us today. Marj and I spoke on Monday and I know how much she was hoping to be able to be here herself.
It was my pleasure to attend the official launch of the Centre for Women's Sport in 2023, and to meet, with Rod, the 2024 and 2025 program participants when they come to Government House to celebrate their graduation.
Marj was there in 2024 and the star of the show. Everyone wanted to speak to her and be photographed with her and all the graduates spoke enthusiastically about the difference the program had made to them.
Marj and I really only got to know one another after I was sworn in as Governor.
It won’t surprise you to know that former governors are always very supportive of the serving Governor and that brings us together.
Early in my term, I invited Marj to lunch at Government House – or rather, back to Government House for lunch – because I wanted to seek her advice as I was thinking deeply at that time about how I could encourage leadership across our state.
Characteristically self deprecating, Marj asked what she would know about leadership, but then she told me her life story.
I sat there absolutely transfixed, listening to a story of determination of a kind that most people can scarcely imagine.
Marj spoke too of Peter and their children and grandchildren, how she had campaigned for funding for leukaemia research, what she had done as Governor, and what she has done in the years since.
I came to realise that, once upon a time the world's fastest woman, as South Australia’s 33rd Governor, Marj had seen her Olympic medals and her life experience as a way of connecting with people, with visitors to South Australia, and with South Australians themselves. Young and old.
She knew tragedy and showed them kindness, she showed her own resilience, and her sense of humour, she gave encouragement and she built her leadership in a way that was characteristically authentic.
Wherever Rod and I travel around South Australia, we meet people who fondly remember Marj, some of whom remain in touch.
People who remember the cordial she likes to drink and served at Government House and her favourite Golden North icecream.
Without exception, she leaves a positive and lasting impression on everyone.
The timeline here on the Centre’s wall is a great reminder of Marj's decorated sporting career, her advocacy for those affected by leukaemia, and her time as Governor of this state.
I trust it will be a meaningful reminder to the women who pass through these doors of what Marj has achieved, and of what is possible for women in sport and in life, including public life.
It is fitting that this Centre overlooks the very stadium where so many girls and women are undertaking their own athletic journeys.
I am heartened that the Centre is now located among one of Australia’s premier high-performance sports, research and education precincts.
I thank Sport SA, the South Australian Government, and all those who have worked to bring this location to life.
I thank, too, Marj herself, who lent her name to this Centre when it was established, the first time in her life she had done so.
That decision speaks to her unwavering commitment to the advancement of women in sport.
As Governor, I have learned from Marj that leadership is found not only in record-breaking achievement, but in the quiet, daily acts of kindness and connection that follow it and the friendships which are forged if one is fortunate enough to live a long and eventful life.
To this Centre, in its new home: may it be as dynamic and courageous as the woman whose name it carries.
Marj, we love you!