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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-15 Daily Xml
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Surf Life Saving South Australia

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (15:10): My question is to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Can the minister update the house on the start of the 2019-20 surf lifesaving patrol season and how the state government is delivering safer beaches for all South Australians?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:10): I thank the member for Finniss very much for his question. I note that every time I travel into his electorate—and a beautiful electorate it is, too—I get to see some of the finest surf lifesaving clubs that we have in our state, be it Goolwa, Port Elliot or of course down there at Chiton Rocks.

What he does have in his electorate are a number of the toughest surf beaches that we have in South Australia. What he also has in his electorate is a beach named after him. Basham Beach is his family's beach down there on Fleurieu Peninsula. It was great to be with him and the President of Surf Life Saving South Australia, Mr John Baker, and the CEO, Damien Marangon, at Glenelg Beach last week when we launched the season on Friday. It was great to have some volunteers come down for that launch.

To show how important a role our surf lifesavers play in our community, we were doing the media call, as is the wont in this caper, and a father came running up the beach carrying his son, calling out, 'Patrol, patrol!' They were very quick to react. We know that when we go to the beach during surf lifesaving season, which kicked off last weekend, we ask people to swim between the flags. It's vitally important that they do that to give them the best chance of staying safe on our beach, but so much happens away from the water as well.

We had this situation at the launch where a father was carrying his son and calling for patrols. They rushed over to help him out. This young child had a bee sting and they were concerned that he might go into anaphylactic shock. It was great to see members of the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club kick into action and help out in this situation. So not only is this great work done in the water but it's also done on the beach.

Last summer, we know that 13 lives were lost in the water and that is 13 too many. It is up on the year before, so it is great that we have so many volunteers—more than 2,500—who patrol our beaches and they kicked off on the weekend. We thank them for the wonderful work that they do. There were 71,000 hours put in last summer by volunteers. When you think about it, that is a resource that you obviously can't pay for and it's vitally important that we are out there saying thank you to the great surf lifesavers for the work they do.

One of the ways that we can thank them is by getting them better resources. As a government, we came in and committed to giving all 21 of our surf lifesaving clubs $5,000 each to make sure they are well resourced each and every season to make sure they are doing the wonderful work they can. Also in the 2019-20 budget, we have $3.9 million out of the Community Emergency Services Fund for upgrades of clubs.

With the member for Finniss, we were at the Goolwa club on the weekend. They have just finished building their wonderful new club. The government put $2.6 million towards that project. The local council put in $500,000 as well and it is a beautiful facility down there. As I said, it is rated as one of the most dangerous stretches of water that we have here in South Australia. They have some 300 members now and we saw the place full for the opening as well. I will acknowledge the Minister for Environment. He was down there as well. In fact, he has patrolled that beach a little bit over time and we know he is a very avid surf lifesaver.

It was great to be there with David Reynolds, the president, and all the volunteers. In fact, we had so many people there that the member for Finniss was a little bit cheeky. With a brand-new facility, he figured that by having so many people overflowing out of the club he would try to get some extra money for an extension already. They were enjoying the facility. It is a great facility and it will serve South Australians incredibly well over the summer ahead.

Again I would like to thank our surf lifesavers. I am lucky enough to have Somerton and Brighton in my electorate as well, and we were at Seacliff again in fact with the Minister for Environment just last week as they erected their new surf lifesaving tower down there, of course, where they keep and stow the beach mat to allow people with wheelchairs to access the water. Seacliff do a great job with that. Again, to all our surf lifesaving volunteers, we thank them so much for their service. We hope that they have a very inactive summer and we hope everyone stays safe, even in the member for Lee's electorate where they have wonderful volunteers.

The SPEAKER: The minister's time has expired.

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