VACSWIM

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (15:42): This morning I was absolutely delighted to have the privilege to launch the 2014 water safety program well known as VACSWIM, an iconic program in this state. I just want to talk about VACSWIM for a short period of time. It really commenced in about 1956 when the then government of the day provided £8,000 for what it described in its estimates program as a swimming campaign. That has evolved into VACSWIM to the extent that in 2013, 13,400 young children undertook VACSWIM classes, and in 2014 we expect that number to increase.

It is really a very big part of South Australian childhood experiences. It is an iconic water safety program, and it is criminal here in Australia, where 90 percent of our population live around the coastal areas, that there are still those people who cannot swim. What VACSWIM does is provide our children here in South Australia with fundamental water safety and survival, and rescue skills and they carry these skills through to their adulthood.

Water safety is a priority and will always be a priority for this government and, I expect, any government. It makes a difference to our communities. It makes a difference to our families. We all know that all Australians, as part of our culture, enjoy recreation and sport, swimming and leisure activity in the water at our beaches, in our rivers and in our pools, and it is, quite simply, central to the Australian and South Australian lifestyle. We want people to enjoy these activities, but we want them to do it safely. Considerable effort has gone into promoting water safety. Unfortunately accidents still do occur and we need to, through VACSWIM, equip as many people as possible to deal with any emergencies that might occur in the water.

It was a pleasure to be there this morning, and of course VACSWIM focuses on young people, 5 to 18, at a key life stage which VACSWIM is designed to address. In recent years, there has only been one drowning, and of course that is one drowning too many, reported for that age group. In 2012-13, there were no deaths reported, so that is a good result, but it is no reason to be complacent and relax. We still need to be very diligent as a community about ensuring that our young people are exposed to all aspects of water safety.

What VACSWIM provides is skills, knowledge, awareness, and potentially—and more than just potentially—a positive and beneficial impact on a person for the rest of their life with respect to water safety. The government has been a major contributor towards achieving basic swimming and water safety skills for both children and ultimately adults, with significant contributions over many years. I want to commend the YMCA, which has managed this program since 2011, and I also want to acknowledge Mr Haydn Robins, who has only been in South Australia for five weeks. He came from Victoria and has been appointed as the chief executive officer of YMCA, and I welcome him here to South Australia.

I also want to acknowledge the key partners in VACSWIM: AUSTSWIM, Surf Life Saving SA, Royal Life Saving Society of South Australia, and of course the sponsors of the program as well. SA Water deserves to be commended for its ongoing sponsorship of this very important program, along with the many other sponsors that help underpin this particular program. While we also know that learning to swim is such a vital life skill, this is really much harder in country areas, where children live in a riskier environment with creeks, dams, water tanks and the like. So, the work of local associations to make the VACSWIM program a success in those areas is incredibly important, and I acknowledge those community groups and associations as well.

I also want to pay tribute to the many qualified instructors who are vital to this program. There will be 600 instructors this year, and they instil those qualities and skills into the people that they will be supervising at over 130 venues across the state. It certainly is a fantastic program, sir, and I know that, like me, your children probably attended VACSWIM at some stage. There have been many thousands of young South Australians who have undertaken this program, which makes the activity that they undertake in the water as children growing up into adults much safer than otherwise would be the case.