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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-11-14 Daily Xml
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Lifesaving World Championships

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (12:39): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that the Lifesaving World Championships 2018 are being held from 16 November to 2 December at Glenelg Beach and the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre;

(b) welcomes the many competitors, officials and volunteers from South Australia, interstate and overseas;

(c) acknowledges the efforts of Surf Life Saving South Australia and Glenelg Surf Life Saving in attracting the world championships to Adelaide for an unprecedented second time; and

(d) highlights the significant volunteer contribution made by all surf lifesaving clubs in South Australia to increase beach safety.

I move this motion because, while the primary role of surf lifesaving is to save lives, the other aspect of surf lifesaving is competition, with lifesaving sport intended to encourage lifesavers to develop, maintain and improve the physical and mental skills needed to save lives in an aquatic environment.

A lifesaving competition such as this consists of a variety of competitions that enables the surf lifesavers to practise their skills and improve their fitness. Every two years, the International Life Saving Federation organises the lifesaving world championships. The championships mostly alternate between the northern and southern hemispheres, with the first lifesaving world championship being held in Canada in 1986.

The last one held in Australia in 2012 was the Rescue 2012 championships, which were held here in South Australia, with the pool events at the world-class state Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Marion, and the beach and ocean events split between Christies Beach and Glenelg Beach. I was fortunate enough to compete in the 2012 championships, and it was a friendly atmosphere, with competitors learning from each other. Many of those competitors came from countries across the globe, such as Great Britain, Argentina, Egypt, Japan and Iran, to name a few, where surf conditions are not as big as experienced on many Australian beaches.

Being in Gulf St Vincent, the conditions at Glenelg Beach are a lot calmer, and our pristine beaches made for excellent conditions for competition, especially amongst those newer countries. Added to this, the location, with its tourist attractions and restaurants along Jetty Road, and the hospitality at Glenelg in particular and in South Australia as a whole, provided a compelling experience, with many competitors wanting to return.

These factors were a key reason why Adelaide was selected again to host the event this year, starting in two days' time from 16 November to 2 December. Adelaide is the only city to have secured this prestigious event twice since the championships began. This speaks volumes about our event-hosting capacity, the pristine beaches in metropolitan Adelaide and the fantastic lifestyle on offer in South Australia.

For these two weeks, Glenelg Beach and the state Aquatic and Leisure Centre will welcome 5,000 athletes from 44 countries and over 800 teams. Add to this the volunteers and officials and that number swells to 6,200 athletes and officials. The championships will deliver 500 competitions across the beach, ocean and pool, and the event is expected to inject $18 million into the state's economy. For many, this will be their first visit to South Australia, and it will be a chance to explore Glenelg and the wider city and immerse themselves in high-quality food, wine and tourism experiences.

Whereas in 2012 Surf Life Saving Australia was the primary body, Surf Life Saving South Australia is the peak body in 2018. Recognising the opportunity to host the event for a second time since 2012, Surf Life Saving South Australia worked with the then government, Events SA and SA Tourism to secure the funding required to host a successful event, with the bid ultimately successful. Significantly, the beach and ocean events are to be consolidated to Glenelg Beach in 2018. Responsibility for organising this event has fallen solely on the resources of Surf Life Saving South Australia, rather than on the larger Surf Life Saving Australia.

CEO Clare Harris and her staff started the planning process over three years ago, and alongside this Sally from Events SA and the Holdfast Bay council have been heavily involved in the planning process. Events SA is the major sponsor of the event, whilst the Holdfast Bay council general manager of community services Marnie Lock, who prior to working with the council ran the Rescue 2012 event, has also helped work on the executive committee. A local organising committee has utilised the expert knowledge of, among others, members of the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club: the president, Georgina Cole, Pete Tidswell, and Adam Luscombe, to name a few.

In preparation for the event, the building of the site commenced on Monday, and when I visited the area last night I could see the competition venue starting to take shape. Wigley Reserve has been fenced off to store gear and the volleyball nets on Glenelg Beach have been taken down and in their place grandstand seating is being constructed for the sprint and beach flags arenas. The ocean events will take place in two areas. The swimming, board and ski events will take place to the north of the jetty and the inflatable rescue boat and surf boat events will be held to the south of the jetty.

The Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club itself is looking fantastic, with new signage certain to draw many competitors back to the club after a hard day's competition. The apron outside the club's entrance has been converted into an alfresco experience. Inside, the storage area of the club is adorned with many international flags, the Australian flag taking pride of place. Upstairs is the main restaurant. While some people may think that the club is for members only, this is not the case. These areas are open to the public and welcoming. I encourage the local community to attend events, support the athletes and then take advantage of this entertainment precinct.

Qualifying as a competitor requires each volunteer lifesaver to qualify for the surf bronze medallion, which consists of a series of tests, including first-aid exams and simulated rescues. It also consists of a fitness test called the 'run, swim, run', which is a 200-metre run, 200-metre swim and a 200-metre run, all of which must be completed in eight minutes. Each season, volunteer lifesavers must perform a proficiency test to recertify their skills.

In addition to holding the bronze medallion, the lifesavers must compete a minimum number of patrol hours each year to be eligible for competition—and there are no exceptions to this. In conjunction with the beach events, the pool events are being held at the state Aquatic Centre at Marion and it is where the championships will kick off this Friday. The pool events are freestyle events but, rather than just straight-line swimming, they involve obstacles, diving and retrieving dummy patients in rescue scenarios, requiring outstanding lung capacity. As an example, the 200-metre obstacle swim has competitors swimming 200 metres during which they swim under eight immersed obstacles.

The beach and ocean events at Glenelg start on Monday 19November and involve exciting events on the sand, including beach sprints and a beach relay, when competitors run up and back along the same straight line and hand the baton to each other going at speed in opposite directions. It is certainly spectacular to watch. The beach flags competition has competitors lying face down on the sand in a prone position and on the whistle rising and racing to a flag 20 metres away. There is always one less flag than competitors, so the competition is run over a series of knockout races until only one competitor remains.

In the ocean, there are board and beach ski races. The blue-ribbon event is the ocean women and ocean men events. These races test competitors as ultimate all-rounders, as some of the best athletes in the world go around doing a different discipline, with each lap of swimming, boarding and surf ski broken up by runs along the beach to start each lap. The other side of the jetty will see the fast-paced action of the inflatable rubber boats, IRBs or rubber duckies, as they are colloquially known, that race out from shore to the sea to pluck a patient from the water while not stopping and then performing a U-turn before racing back to shore.

The beach and ocean series will kick off with the official opening ceremony on 20 November, with the Premier in attendance. First the masters will compete, including myself, in the beach sprint relay and flags before the national youth and open team competition starts on Thursday 22 November, running through to 2 December.

I want to take this opportunity to welcome the many competitors, officials and volunteers from South Australia, interstate and overseas who will descend upon Adelaide over the coming two weeks. I hope they achieve a personally satisfying result. I hope they get to enjoy a fantastic time in Glenelg with their families and are welcomed with open arms by the local community. I would also like to thank the hundreds of volunteers who will be vital to the smooth running of the championships. Past president of the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club Shane Daw will be a safety officer. Others, but by no means all, to thank are Craig Burton, Steve and Tony Dalton, Anthony Merchant, Justin Ganley, Rob Warne, Gordon Clifford and former Somerton Surf Life Saving Club presidents Steve Cornish and Mark Strachan.

Many of these volunteers will be from the 22 South Australian surf lifesaving clubs and, when the championships have finished, they and their fellow volunteer patrolling club members will still be present keeping our popular beaches safe over the upcoming summer—a service for which the Morphett community is very appreciative.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (12:49): It gives me great pleasure to rise today to provide a little bit of commentary on the Lifesaving World Championships, which are being held in South Australia from 16 November to 2 December this year. It is a great testament to Surf Life Saving South Australia and our lifesaving movement in this state that we are able to host the world championships again after doing so a few short years ago in 2012. Through the experience and opportunity of hosting the championships in 2012, we have clearly demonstrated not only that we have great beaches, great athletes and great lifesavers to put these events on but also that we can build on what we learnt in 2012 to have a really great event this year.

I pay tribute to Clare Harris, chief executive officer of Surf Life Saving South Australia, her board, ably led by John Baker, and the team that they have around them in being able to secure the championships, because it is not only great for beach sports and surf sports in this state but also a great little economic boost to the state, bringing hundreds of visitors to South Australia to enjoy what we have to offer at this time of year. The championships are obviously an opportunity for our surf clubs at home here in South Australia to demonstrate their prowess on the beach as well, and it has been a great pleasure of mine to be able to be involved in the surf lifesaving movement in our state for a number of years.

Under my previous electorate boundaries, I had the great privilege of representing three surf clubs: Somerton Surf Life Saving Club; Brighton Surf Life Saving Club, which, as I have mentioned many times, is my home surf lifesaving club; and Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club. Under the new boundaries, I have lost the representative side of Somerton and Brighton surf clubs, but I do keep that very strong connection with all the clubs and particularly now, in a representative sense, with the Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club.

It is Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club that I want to dwell on and celebrate for a couple more minutes this morning for the contribution it makes to the community I represent. Their contribution was recently recognised at the 2018 Surf Life Saving Awards of Excellence, where Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club took home so many of the prizes and was named 2018 Surf Life Saving Club of the Year. It gave me immense pride as someone who has involvement in that club as their local MP, and I really enjoy being part of the community that club represents and creates along the coastline in the south-west of Adelaide.

I would like to acknowledge that, in attaining club of the year, Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club achieved a number of other awards, including community education program of the year, which was a partnership with Suneden Specialist School around the Beach for All access mat. I had a great opportunity to partner with Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club a couple of years ago in creating that accessible beach at Seacliff, with the mat that runs over the soft sand down to the sea, but the surf club has gone on and built so much more than just that piece of infrastructure. They have created a whole movement around disability awareness within their club and are able to contribute to the broader understanding of and services for people who have a disability, for them to be able to access that beach environment, which is so much more difficult when living with a disability.

I also want to congratulate the following winners from Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club: coach of the year, Brian Bayliss, otherwise known as 'Bly'; trainer of the year, Ashley Clarke; assessor of the year, Karen Wilmot; nipper parent of the year, Jacinta Day; and youth surf lifesaver of the year, Tom May. Of course, that built up to the momentous award of 2018 club of the year. I want to congratulate the leadership of the club, particularly Andrew Chandler, who recently left the presidency after, I think, six years in that role. He was replaced by Dr Glen Patten, who takes on the leadership of the club in the president's role.

Seacliff Surf Life Saving Club is one of quite a number of clubs providing a service around South Australia's metropolitan and regional coastline. It has really demonstrated what a surf club should be: a place where community is built and nurtured, and where skills are provided to the community, while of course ensuring that our beaches are kept a bit safer, thanks to the service they give. Congratulations to Seacliff, all their members and their leadership team.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (12:55): I rise to welcome all those who are coming here from around the world to compete in this fantastic competition. Adelaide is the first place to hold the Lifesaving World Championships twice, which is a great achievement for our state. I want to commend all those involved in surf lifesaving and also the team at the South Australian Tourism Commission who worked hard to get this.

Our government funded this bid, which will bring millions of dollars of economic activity into South Australia. I just hope that the cuts this new government has delivered to the South Australian Tourism Commission do not mean that we miss out on these sorts of events. We have had eight months of the new government and no new major events have been announced in that time, which is pretty worrying to a lot of the people I speak with in the visitor economy.

One thing we know about mass participation events such as the Lifesaving World Championships and the Masters Games is that so many people come here and have a great time then go home and tell their families that they should come back for another stay in beautiful South Australia. That is after they have already pumped millions of dollars into our economy. I wish them all a great competition and a safe competition, and I hope that competitors from South Australia, around Australia and indeed around the world have a terrific time in Adelaide.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (12:56): I rise to support the member for Morphett's motion. I also extend my congratulations to the Glenelg Surf Club and the South Australia Aquatic and Leisure Centre, as they are set to host the Lifesaving World Championships for the second time in six years. There are two fantastic surf clubs in the Colton electorate: the Henley Beach Surf Life Saving Club and the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club. Both clubs have teams entered in the competition.

We have an incredibly strong history of surf lifesaving in our local community, and that is highlighted by the number of competitors from both clubs competing in the world championships this week. The West Beach Surf Life Saving Club has 103 athletes competing: 51 are participating in the boat categories, 27 in the masters competition, 13 in the opens and 12 in the youth category, which is very exciting. If you look at that list of names, you will see that a number cross over within families. There are mothers competing next to their daughters, fathers next to sons and husbands and wives competing together. This highlights the strong family nature that exists within surf clubs in South Australia.

The Henley Beach Surf Life Saving Club also have a large number of competitors entered this year, with five surf boat crews, 16 masters competitors and 12 seniors. It is also worth noting that they have a 17-year-old Indigenous student from Wiltja Boarding college, who took part in the club's Indigenous program and has gone on to formally compete at the surf lifesaving championships. They are a passionate group at Henley and they do a fantastic job in ensuring there is an equal opportunity for everybody in our community to get involved in surf sports if they so wish.

As we get closer to the summer months, it is exciting for many in our community. They have the opportunity to dust off the boardies and the bathers and get ready to come down to our beach. It is at this point, as we move into summer, that we really need to recognise the number of volunteer hours that our surf lifesavers provide each and every year. We thank them for their service. I know at times they are potentially overlooked and not recognised in the same way as other emergency services such as the SES, CFS and MFS, but they are a vital emergency service. They keep our beaches safe and our coastal communities stronger and healthier each and every year.

On behalf of our community, I wish the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club and the Henley Beach Surf Life Saving Club all the very best as their competitors line up for the Lifesaving World Championships later in the week. I am sure they will make our community very proud.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (12:59): I thank all those who have spoken to the motion. I wish all the competitors the best of luck over the upcoming two weeks.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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