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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-03-23 Daily Xml
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VACSWIM

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Recreation and Sport. How has the VACSWIM program performed this year?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:52): I congratulate the member for Reynell and, indeed, the member for Kaurna for achieving their surf lifesaving bronze medallions last weekend after months of training. It is great to see the two of you, who are such great supporters of surf lifesaving in your electorates, getting the bronze medallions. It was a terrific moment. It was all over Facebook and received a lot of—

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland is called to order.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: —accolades. VACSWIM has been going in South Australia since the 1950s. It is a real part of the South Australian summer. I am sure there are plenty of people in this chamber who grew up doing VACSWIM. I remember jumping into the icy waters at Carpenters Rocks in the South-East and getting one of those instant cold headaches. It was pretty arctic sort of water down there.

The Hon. J.J. Snelling interjecting:

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: Yes: the Minister for Health did his at Woodville Primary School. It is a terrific, iconic event that has been happening every summer since the 1950s. Across 130 different locations around South Australia this year we saw more than 12,000 children participate, which was up on the year before, which was up on the year before that. It is good to see something that has been around—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: —for so many years still growing in its popularity. At the end of the VACSWIM the children get a certificate to say what they have achieved over their week or so of VACSWIM activities. It is not about learning to swim as much as it is about learning to survive in the water. Of course, we have thousands of kilometres of coastline here in South Australia and a lot of people have backyard swimming pools. It is really important that our children grow up with confidence.

Mr Whetstone: And the river.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: And the river, of course, the mighty Murray River, which is very important. It can often be treacherous and things can turn bad very quickly in the Murray. It is really important that children are taught safety tips and skills, as well as being able to be confident around water, because it is one of the great recreational activities you can get to be out in the sunshine. I was really pleased that from this year the Department for Education and Child Development are changing the focus of their swimming, too, to not being so much about learning to swim but learning to survive and getting all those survival skills. I think that marries very well with the VACSWIM project.

Some of the organisations that have delivered the VACSWIM project across South Australia this January were Royal Life Saving SA at 75 locations, Surf Life Saving SA at 47 locations, YMCA South Australia at eight locations, the Tatiara council, the Marion council, the Coober Pedy council, Salisbury council and the city of Gawler. For the 2015-16 program, the VACSWIM participation fee remained fixed at $30 per child or $100 per family. Something that we really want to do is make sure that it is affordable for people with primary school aged kids who can be out there learning how to be safe.

The good news was that there were no reported incidents at any of the locations around the state, and that is really handy, particularly with 12,000 children involved. There were no shark sightings at all during any of the VACSWIM, so we are happy. With the cooperation of SAFECOM, the emergency services, they increased the aerial patrols along the metropolitan coastline during the VACSWIM program to doubly ensure that the children who were down there taking part were indeed really safe and being well looked after.

I am pleased to announce that the dates for VACSWIM 2017 have already been set. They are going to run from Tuesday 3 January to Wednesday 11 January. If it does not suit some organisations or some areas to have it on those dates we are open to some negotiations, but they are the dates, and later on this year registrations will open. I encourage everyone, wherever you are in this great state, to put your kids down for VACSWIM. It is a great way of learning safety but also the camaraderie that you get. As a parent, it gets the kids off your hands for a few hours during the school holidays, which is always a great thing.

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