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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-04 Daily Xml
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Surf Life Saving South Australia

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (11:55): I move:

That this house acknowledges the tremendous efforts of Surf Life Saving SA, its clubs and its volunteers across the state, in particular for—

(a) keeping our beaches and coastal waters safe for the South Australian community;

(b) countless hours' training and patrolling our beaches and coastal waters; and

(c) representing our state with distinction in national competitions which showcase the skills and expertise employed in serving and protecting the South Australian community.

With so much of our population living relatively close to the coast, it is little wonder that a day at the beach is considered an integral part of the Australian lifestyle. We have found lots of ways to enjoy that coastal terrain, those beaches. We have found lots of toys to take into those waters, but we have also found lots of ways to get into trouble in those waters, and that is where surf lifesaving comes in.

There are 22 surf lifesaving clubs in South Australia, with more than 9,000 club members across South Australia. The first club that was founded in South Australia was at Henley in 1925. The most recent club that has been founded is in my electorate of Finniss at Goolwa only 10 years ago. They formed a club and, at that stage, they were based out of a tin shed built for them by the CWA. That club has recently opened new clubrooms and has grown to a large club with over 300 members from its initial start 10 years ago with just six. The first regional club was also in my electorate, at Port Elliot, and that was formed in 1933.

Surf lifesaving provides patrol services at 20 locations in the state between October and April. Members train in search and rescue, rescue watercraft services, jetboat services, and even in the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter. It is very important for them to do that training to understand the risks and to learn how best to help the people who are in trouble. It is a very important part of that club structure.

I also see that the education and training extend even further into first aid, public safety, administration of the beaches and the school programs they run. They run the nippers program for the young up-and-coming surf lifesaving members, teaching them about the risks of the beaches and the ways they can help those who might get in trouble around them. It is also interesting to see how surf lifesaving has developed into a national sport. We saw the popularisation of the Ironman series back in the eighties and nineties with the things those individuals did during that series with those rescues. But the competition goes a lot further back than that.

The Port Elliot club are very proud of their history of using surfboats. All their surfboats are named the Flying Fish 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to whatever number they are up to of boats they have had over the years. The Flying Fish was the name of a boat that was lost during the 1800s in a storm in Horseshoe Bay at Port Elliot, so they have carried on the tradition of using that name on their rescue surfboats.

They have competitions not only in surfboats but in jetboats as well. Sadly, I very much remember the loss of a local butcher in my childhood called Ray Evans. The surf lifesaving club decided to honour him by raising funds for a jetboat and naming that boat after him. The Port Elliot club has had the Ray Evans jet boat for many years following that unfortunate incident of him losing his life.

The training done in relation to the sport and competitions helps them hone their skills in relation to actual rescues. All competitions are based on the different ways that they can go out and rescue people, so it very much hones those skills. Often, when visiting my parents, who live not far from Horseshoe Bay, you will often see a surfboat row around the peninsula, out of Horseshoe Bay around towards Middleton, just as they are going for a quick row in the evening as they do their training.

Chiton Rocks is a third club in my electorate. It is quite amazing for one electorate to have three surf lifesaving clubs, as there are only 22 in the state. It is certainly a privilege for Finniss to have those three wonderful clubs. Chiton Rocks was founded in 1957. In the short time that I have been in this place, it has been wonderful to see the opportunity to invest back in those three clubs. Chiton Rocks and Goolwa have both had significant upgrades. In the case of Goolwa, there has been a complete new build of its clubrooms and that has enabled them to do their job much better. They are able to concentrate on rescuing as their facilities and equipment are kept in wonderful new clubrooms.

It is really pleasing to see that. Port Elliot is also in the process of looking to upgrade its clubrooms and is hoping to do that in the very near future. We have seen $2.6 million spent on the clubrooms at Goolwa, as well as extra money for audiovisual training equipment that has also come from government support, and we have seen $2.6 million spent at Chiton Rocks. It is very important that we as a government continue to invest in our surf lifesaving assets, resources, and volunteers in particular.

It is in the summer when we actually see the focus of this work being done, but they do work right throughout the year as well, making sure those beaches have equipment available if needed to get involved in surf rescues, etc., if circumstances arise outside those seasons. It is a challenging space, but we need to make sure that we look after surf lifesaving. The beauty of our coast certainly attracts us down to those waters. We see the opportunity to engage and swim, but we do not necessarily always understand the dangers.

One interesting fact that has been conveyed to me by the Goolwa Surf Life Saving Club is that the beach has been rated a nine on a scale of one to 10 of being dangerous to swim at. The only other patrolled beach that has the same rating is Bondi. Bondi and Goolwa Beach are the only number nines and there are no patrolled beaches that are 10s. So it is one of the most dangerous beaches. The rips out there are very difficult to see and negotiate if you get caught in them. It is very important if people are out swimming that we encourage them to swim between the flags and allow the surf lifesavers to do their job and protect you in those waters.

Port Elliot beach is certainly much safer than Goolwa, but it differs from one end of Horseshoe Bay to the other; they are very different. One is a very safe space to swim in, but the other has deep rips and can be quite challenging at times. Sadly, we have seen several fatalities there in the last 18 months. Unfortunately, people got into trouble and lost their life. If we encourage people to swim in areas where there is supervision, then hopefully that will limit that loss occurring. Swimming is something that the Australian community loves to do.

We need to encourage people to swim. It is great for your health, to get out into the water to keep yourself fit and healthy. I think it is something for which we need to have some personal responsibility. We need to understand our capabilities and, if we are in doubt, swimming between the flags is certainly the best option. When I headed across to New South Wales and Bondi, the only place I went in the water was between the flags, because you could see it was a very dangerous beach and you could see the rips. It concerns me that people choose to swim other than between the flags because they can get into trouble.

In concluding, I thank very much the volunteers for their work in keeping the clubs running and keeping the community safe and in particular for the work they do in risking their lives to save other lives. I also thank the government for its support of surf lifesaving. I am very proud of the history of surf lifesaving in the seat of Finniss and hope it continues to grow, keeps the community safe and allows people to enjoy the beaches we have in our regions.

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (12:07): I rise to speak in support of this motion. I thank the member for Finniss for bringing the motion to the house and for his words. I want to speak about the invaluable and generous work of Surf Life Saving South Australia volunteers in clubs right along our beautiful South Australian coastline. They are generous community members who give up their time, their weekends and put their energy and passion into keeping fellow community members safe, serving our community and giving them confidence to enjoy our magnificent beaches. They also put their energy and passion into healthy competition that, as the motion says, does indeed showcase their considerable skills and expertise.

Every single day I feel deeply blessed to represent communities along our beautiful Mid Coast and to spend my life so close to beaches that are spectacular and that provide the best place for recreation and connection as a community. As a community in the south, we are able to safely enjoy those beaches, their surf and the reef because of the efforts of our surf lifesaving volunteers. They are a constant, reassuring and friendly presence for many and they absolutely save lives and keep people safe.

My community and I are blessed, like the member for Finniss, that three magnificent surf lifesaving clubs are located in Reynell: the Port Noarlunga Surf Life Saving Club, the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club and the South Port Surf Life Saving Club. Each of these clubs is filled with community leaders who not only selflessly keep us safe but also do so much to give young people in our community a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose, a place where they are supported to learn the value of community service and to develop skills.

I thank every single member of each of these clubs, clubs that help to make our community the special and kind place that it is and strengthen the very fabric of our community and the volunteering that it values. In doing so, I thank each of their outstanding presidents: Brett Parker, from the Port Noarlunga Surf Life Saving Club; Dick Olesinski, or 'Ollie', from the South Port Surf Life Saving Club; and Madeline Nurmi, from the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club; as well as their committees for their leadership and for everything they do for our community.

In mentioning those clubs, I want to heartily congratulate the South Port Surf Life Saving Club on reaching a very special milestone this year, their 60th anniversary, and to thank them for the many celebrations they have had in our community and the way they have included people in our community in those celebrations. I also want to heartily congratulate every member, every official and every competitor from the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club, which, just this weekend that has just passed, hosted the extraordinary state Surf Life Saving SA masters titles. It was an extraordinary event.

There were thousands of people at our beaches. As well as so many of the members of the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club competing, they also spent so much time setting the carnival up. Many of them were there in the very, very early hours of the morning, getting barbecues ready, marking out areas for competition, and they continued to do that all weekend. So I absolutely say thank you to the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club community family for what they achieved on the weekend, and I congratulate all those competitors in the masters state titles on their efforts.

As I have mentioned previously in this house, I am a very proud patrolling member at Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club, a very slow patrolling member at the Christies Beach Surf Life Saving Club, who does nowhere near the hours that most volunteers there do. I am also the co-patron of the South Port Surf Life Saving Club, vice-patron of the Port Noarlunga Surf Life Saving Club and patron of Surf Sisters, all roles of which I am extraordinarily proud and deeply, deeply humbled to hold.

I am humbled because, despite my passion for and lifelong commitment to surf lifesaving, the number of hours I contribute are so incredibly small compared with the hours, the months and the years of dedication that so many members of these clubs and others contribute. Many of those members have literally spent almost every weekend for every summer of their lives giving to surf lifesaving, giving to their community, making young people know that they are part of a great big community family that is there to look after them.

As I have also mentioned in this house before, I am so pleased that, despite the fact that we still do have some way to go, the number of women who participate in surf lifesaving is progressively growing. The determined women in surf lifesaving who had to fight every bit of the way for their right to participate and compete many years ago should be commended. Their fight received a much-needed boost in 1974 when our own South Australian premier, Don Dunstan, threatened to cut off funding to surf lifesaving if women continued to be blocked from participating. Shortly after premier Dunstan's intervention, also in 1974, the New South Wales far south coast branch agreed at their annual general meeting to permit the introduction of female membership, and many, many other branches followed that decision, and women are certainly thriving participants in surf lifesaving now.

Those were significant victories after a long campaign by women and other supporters in surf lifesaving, and they were achieved through determination and organisation. Today, it is great that women and girls make up half the new members of lifesaving clubs, but there is still work to be done to ensure equal representation in leadership roles in surf lifesaving. I do think the campaigning, the mentoring and the support provided to surf sisters by their Surf Sisters will certainly assist in those goals.

In closing, I again thank every surf lifesaver on the Mid Coast and certainly every surf lifesaver right along our coastline in every one of the clubs, some of which have already been talked about, for making the decision to give up their time in the service of our community and the service of other people. Whenever families and individuals go along to a beach they see the red and yellow and they see people there who can look after them, set up and ready to go and assist should they get into trouble. That gives many people in our community great confidence to enjoy our magnificent South Australian beaches.

I thank every member who decides to give their time in this way. It is a really extraordinary gift to our community. Again, I commend the motion to the house and I thank the member for Finniss for bringing it to the house.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (12:15): I rise as well to speak on this motion brought to us by the member for Finniss, acknowledging the great work that our surf lifesaving clubs do here in South Australia, and I thank him for this very important motion. It is hard to imagine our beaches without the red and yellow flags of our surf clubs. The flags are such a recognisable sight to all Australians right across the country from Bondi in Sydney to Scarborough in Perth, and, of course, across the 22 clubs at our South Australian beaches from Robe in the South-East to Whyalla we have some wonderful volunteers who do great work at our surf lifesaving clubs.

Surf clubs dot our metropolitan coastline and further south in the member for Finniss's electorate, with surf lifesaving clubs at some of the state's most picturesque beaches. The Goolwa Surf Lifesaving Club—I was very pleased to be with the member for Finniss when we unveiled the great new redevelopment there—is a wonderful spot. Whether you are out getting active or just relaxing and having a drink at the end of the day or a bite to eat, the club does an outstanding job.

Port Elliot is a beautiful beach down there in the member for Finniss's electorate and Chiton Rocks is another surf club, which I opened with the member for Finniss a little while back, since coming into this job. It is a beautiful club, tucked away in there, and not many people know about it. In fact, it has a great affiliation with the Henley surf club in the member for Colton's electorate, and many of his constituents head down there and patrol the beaches at Chiton Rocks. It is a great little spot to go and visit, and the balcony of the club is a wonderful place to be on a sunny afternoon.

South Australia has some of the most beautiful and accessible beaches in the world, and I have just outlined a couple. The red and yellow striped flags are such a reassuring sight, to know that when we are down at the beach and we see these flags we can relax and swim safely, knowing that we are watched over by very well-trained and capable surf lifesavers, who not only devote their time but do it for no remuneration as well, because the majority are volunteers doing wonderful work in our community.

They are another great group of South Australian volunteers, and within my portfolio area I am very lucky to work with so many, be they through the CFS, the SES, surf lifesaving, or the so many sports clubs that I deal with right across our great state. As a state we are very lucky to have, I think, the best volunteers in the country, and I take every opportunity and this opportunity as well to say thank you to all our volunteers. They want to make everybody on the beach feel safe and enjoy the wonderful places where they are swimming and recreating.

We know all too well that our beaches can be dangerous. We heard the member for Finniss talk about that, and surf lifesavers truly deserve their title of being lifesavers. In my electorate, I am very privileged to have two surf lifesaving clubs, Brighton and Somerton, and they are bookended just outside my boundaries by Seacliff and Glenelg. A lot of people from my community also go to those surf clubs. So they are just four in my local area that I know do an absolutely amazing job week in, week out. It is always a pleasure to visit these clubs throughout the year and see the excellent service they provide to our community right across the board.

I will take this moment to acknowledge the President of the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club, Chris Parsons, and the President of the Somerton Surf Lifesaving Club, Warwick Holland, for their leadership and the amazing job they do with their whole team. Again, I thank all the people on the committees. We know volunteer clubs do not operate with just one or two people; the committees run very deep, and we thank everyone. Both those clubs have had very big years.

Last year, Brighton's club tower was officially opened, again with the federal member, Nicolle Flint, and my parliamentary colleague the Minister for Environment, David Speirs, the member for Black. It was great to be down there opening that. The tower looked spectacular and it really is one of those iconic surf lifesaving sights on our beach and it allows the people of that surf lifesaving club to patrol the beaches and keep the residents of our community even safer.

There is also our election commitment: another great thing we have done at the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club in particular. It is just one of three across the country, I am informed, that has a road between their surf lifesaving club and the beach. We have put a great new wombat crossing there with flashing lights as well. Many youngsters, in particular, are travelling from the surf lifesaving club across to the beach with equipment and gear, then coming back and washing up at the end of the day—and there is also a playground right next door—so the community really uses the crossing. In the lead-up to the last election, the club came to me and said, 'This is something we would really like to do.' They had been pursuing it for a while without any success, but we delivered it for that community and I think it has been a wonderful outcome.

The Somerton Surf Life Saving Club have begun their 60th season—a huge milestone for this club. It is a great club with wonderful members, really down-to-earth folk. I like to get down there whenever I can. Their committee does a great job and they have a really great vibe around their club. I must say that that is not in small part due to Robin Kidney senior. Robin founded the club 60 years ago. He is a great community member. He also founded the Mitchell Park Football Club and was a very staunch member of the Army Reserve, 10th Battalion of the Royal South Australian Regiment.

I do not think he will mind me saying that he is a gentleman who is getting on in years. He is no spring chicken anymore. He is always around at the club with a big smile on his face, and to see what the club is today from what he founded when it first kicked off should make him very proud. I know the community is very proud of him and what he has done. It would be remiss of me not to mention that, as well as these wonderful community aspects and growth and projects he has been involved with over his time, he is an outstanding musician. He is a very talented man and I know that the Somerton Surf Life Saving Club is greatly indebted to him for kicking the club off and making it, as I said, what it is today.

I caught up with him most recently when I was there with the member for Morphett when we unveiled the walk through the Minda Dunes. Fundamentally, that links his fine electorate with my even better electorate and allows our communities to link through there and not have to go back and walk along the footpaths and the streets. You can do the beach walk all the way along and that path takes you through. It really has added to the Somerton Surf Life Saving Club and the people now who engage with the club. In fact, I did the walk on the weekend and saw the member for Morphett out doing cleaning up work on the beach. Again, he is another great community contributor doing wonderful work in his area.

In January 2020, the Australian Open Water Swimming Championships took place at the Brighton jetty. The championship is the nation's premier open water swimming event. Once again, we were treated to some of the world's best swimmers on display. In February, of course, we had the Brighton Jetty Classic, an ocean swim hosted by the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club. A number of American competitors came over to take part in the Open Water Swimming Championships as they prepare for the Olympic Games, and it was great to see that international flavour in Adelaide. The Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club is very heavily involved in that.

They also had the Jetty Classic the week after. That is famous. You would have heard us talk in this place many times about the Marilyn swim and all the other events. It ranges from a 100-metre swim, a 400-metre swim to a 1.5-kilometre swim. As I pointed out, the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club volunteers who run cover for that event do a wonderful job. I congratulate them all. The Marilyn Jetty Swim is a charity fundraiser for the Cancer Council.

Also in February, in what has been a very busy month, a number of members took part in the rescue and resuscitation state titles. They achieved fantastic results, with Matilda Whelan and Ellie Morgan from the Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club winning a bronze medal in the under 15s two-person rescue and resuscitation event. That is just fantastic to see because whilst they are out there having fun, being fit and being healthy, there are the underlying thoughts, ideas and focus on rescue and resuscitation. That is very important because that is what they are there to do: be fit, be healthy and, have fun on the beach, but they are there to save lives and that is what they do. Congratulations to Matilda and Ellie.

In the same month, a few of Brighton's surfboat teams travelled to New South Wales to take part in the 2020 Surf Live Saving Australia Surf Boat Interstate Championship, with the women's Bombshells team finishing fifth in the final of the women's reserve, and the Brighton Biddies winning silver in the masters competition. Congratulations to them.

It is important to remember that surf lifesaving clubs across our state are built on volunteers. We have talked about that, and we cannot thank our volunteers enough. As one of the largest volunteer movements of its kind in the world, surf lifesaving clubs carry out so much more than just patrolling our beaches. Beyond that, they provide a community for lifelong friends and they facilitate water safety, risk education and experiences. As a government, we have supported surf lifesaving clubs around our state in a number of ways.

Our election commitment was that every surf lifesaving club will be provided $5,000 a year for four years to help purchase front-line equipment. That has been incredibly well received. We are subsidising Surf Babies and Little Lifesavers, programs to help parents and kids get involved and confident around the water. That has been outstanding. We also have our drone coverage. Our shark-spotting drones have been incredibly well received. They have done a great job in complementing the planes and rescue helicopters we have in place.

Again, I commend the member for Finniss for the great work he does in his community and for bringing this motion to the house. I support the motion.

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (12:25): I rise today to support the member for Finniss's motion and to take this opportunity to thank our surf lifesaving volunteers across our great state. I have mentioned many times in this house already that the first lifesaving club formed at Henley in 1925. I say that frequently because our local community is obviously very proud to have the oldest surf club in South Australia. We have two fantastic surf clubs, one at West Beach, towards the southern end of the electorate, and Grange, just outside the electorate, but I am sure there is still a crossover of people within the Henley area who are members at Grange as well. They are great surf clubs that have done great work across our community for a long, long time.

The support that the surf clubs receive from our local communities says a lot about what they do and what they mean to our communities. They are a quintessential example of what volunteering is: making a positive and substantial difference to our local communities. Certainly, all lifesavers in the area are held in great esteem. There have been a number of occasions over the past couple of years when they have been called into action when not necessarily on patrol. But, having been in the area, having been at the jetty or the beach, they have come to the fore and done what needed to be done at the time to help people in need. Once a lifesaver, always a lifesaver and technically not really ever off duty, I think is the approach that most take.

I have certainly been a big advocate for volunteering for local community groups. I know that both the West Beach and Henley surf clubs are always looking for people to join in and to volunteer. Really, anybody can be a surf lifesaver. They come from all walks of life and in all shapes and sizes. There are many different jobs that can be done around a surf club. I certainly urge anybody who loves the beach, who loves our community, to think about getting involved and joining one of our local surf clubs.

With summer now just over, it is an opportunity and a time for us to reflect on the valuable role that our surf lifesaving clubs and volunteers play. I am more than happy to take this opportunity to put on record this house's sincere appreciation for the work Surf Life Saving SA do—the organisation as a whole as well as the surf lifesavers and volunteers across our coastal community.

I want to take the opportunity today to discuss the National Drowning Report that is compiled each year by Royal Life Saving Australia. Between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019, 276 people drowned across Australia in waterways. It was a slight increase on the previous year but still slightly lower than the 10-year average across our nation. In terms of the numbers, I think everybody here would accept that we are aiming for zero. We do not ever want to lose a life on our beaches or, in our waterways. From a water safety perspective, everything we do should be aimed at reducing that number.

There are some pretty compelling stats around water safety, and I just want to highlight a couple that were put forward in that report. It would probably surprise some members to know that 81 per cent of drownings are male. We had 14 drownings in South Australia last year, which was down by 13 per cent on the year before, and in part that is a testament to the work that our lifesavers do. It makes sense that the vast majority of drownings occur not only in the summer season but also on weekends, when our beaches are frequented at a higher rate than during the week.

From time to time, it has been a challenge to direct resources between beach drownings and inland waterway drownings. The statistics this year were practically equal in the number of drownings across each category, but there is always much more that we can do to try to protect and ensure that number reduces, both as a government and more broadly as a community and through our not-for-profit organisations, such as Surf Life Saving SA and Royal Life Saving South Australia. The government certainly has stepped up some way to contribute to reducing that number.

The Minister for Sport has already referenced the Surf Babies and Little Lifesavers programs, and the extension of the primary school-age Sports Vouchers program to cover swimming lessons is also a positive move in the direction of trying to achieve a lower total in terms of drownings in South Australia. We already have the VACSWIM program, which is incredibly important for those who do not necessarily have the opportunity to do regular swimming lessons but can take this on during the school vacation times.

Offering this program across both beach and pool provides great opportunities for those who are not necessarily accustomed to the challenges that come with swimming in the sea. The member for Finniss has already referenced rips and the like that are synonymous with his part of South Australia, but even for those within metropolitan South Australia there are particular areas that are sometimes more challenging. I know the member for Morphett would certainly reference the Glenelg breakwater as being one of those. Everybody in this place has a responsibility to continue to provide opportunities for us to contribute to reducing the number of drownings.

I would like to take this opportunity to again thank the presidents of both surf clubs in my electorate—Peter Zuill at West Beach and Rae Lawson at Henley Beach—for their continued support of their surf clubs and their communities. Broader than that, I would like to thank the vast number of people who volunteer on the surf lifesaving club committees and contribute, in most circumstances, a huge portion of their time to those organisations.

The member for Finniss referenced the tin shed that the Goolwa Surf Life Saving Club had been using prior to entering their new facilities. That story is well ingrained in many of our surf clubs up and down the metropolitan coast and further abroad. The West Beach Surf Life Saving Club, in particular, paid homage to their tin shed roots by establishing a group called the Tin Shedders, who fundraise frequently for the surf club and have raised over $100,000 for the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club over the past 10 years. When you hear the words 'Tin Shedders', it is synonymous with surf lifesaving in South Australia but, in particular, with the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who work and volunteer with Surf Life Saving SA and its clubs and across coastal communities here in South Australia, in particular in the local western suburbs. It is an incredibly vital public service that they provide. While at times they can be overlooked and are not seen in quite the same vein as the emergency services, such as the SES, the CFS or the MFS, certainly in the eyes of many in this place their role is absolutely critical in ensuring the safety of South Australians. I think there is vast support within the broader community for the work that they do.

We would like to wish all surf lifesavers a very successful and safe remainder of the season, and we hope that they get the opportunity to enjoy and contribute, through their communities, across the coming months and years.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (12:33): I want to take the opportunity in parliament today to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of Surf Life Saving South Australia, its clubs and also its volunteers. The mission of Surf Life Saving South Australia is to save lives, create great Australians and build better communities. I can certainly say that Surf Life Saving South Australia lives up to that mission.

In terms of South Australia, in their 2019 annual report Surf Life Saving South Australia noted that there are 21 surf lifesaving clubs here in South Australia. Those clubs patrol many of our metropolitan and also regional beaches—beautiful coastline—but they rely on volunteer surf lifesavers to keep those beaches safe. Of those patrolling members, in 2018-19 there were 2,435 patrolling members who, between them all, provided 77,218 patrol hours, which is a significant amount of volunteer time that is put into our South Australian community.

While they were patrolling, they performed 307 rescues, made 964 first aid treatments and also undertook 8,311 preventative actions for the year. They have done a terrific service for our beachgoers and South Australians and tourists alike. It is not just the patrolling lifesavers who make up these clubs; there are many other members of the clubs, with a combined total in South Australian surf lifesaving clubs of 8,755 members across all the clubs. Of those members, many of them are parents of our junior surf lifesavers. They get involved with the clubs, they take their kids along and introduce the nippers to the surf lifesaving program. In fact, there were 2,595 junior surf lifesavers last year.

It really is such a fantastic environment for those juniors. The great thing about surf lifesaving clubs is that they have older members ranging right down to the junior members, between 80 years plus down to seven years old, and there is also a great mix of male and female. It is a good way for the young ones to learn from their mentors with leadership from the older ones, and also to get comfortable dealing with males and females and being together going forward in terms of learning how to get on with the opposite sex.

The 2019-20 patrol season has been going for quite a while now. It started on Saturday 12 October 2019. Volunteers across all those surf lifesaving clubs patrol on weekends, both Saturday and Sunday, but also on public holidays over the summer months. The patrol season will finish as we reach into Easter on 13 April. That is quite a significant number of months over the summer season when our beaches are patrolled and swimmers can safely swim between the red and yellow flags.

In the case of my electorate of Morphett, there is the Glenelg Surf Lifesaving Club sitting there on Glenelg Beach. Each weekend, they have two volunteer patrols on each of the Saturday and Sunday. One patrol patrols between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock, while the other one takes over from 3 o'clock until 6 o'clock. Because it is such a busy beach, over the January period they do provide surveillance between 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock, so that means the beaches are effectively patrolled from 9 o'clock until 6 o'clock on weekends, and also, I should add, on public holidays. On Christmas Day there are surveillance patrols, and also on Boxing Day, New Year's Day and other weekends when there are festivals as well.

Glenelg is very busy. Of course, an example is the Blessing of the Waters when young Greek Orthodox men and women jump into the ocean and try to retrieve a cross. You would think that most of the swimmers who take part in that would go in there knowing that they could swim, but on occasions they do not realise how deep the waters can be and sometimes, in their endeavours to retrieve the cross, need the help of the surf lifesavers.

In terms of the surf lifesaving club at Glenelg, it has 11 patrol teams that operate diligently over these months. That takes in over 175 volunteers, so I cannot name every one of those volunteers individually, but it is worth acknowledging the patrol captains of these 11 patrols, including Grant Macauley, Neil Mangelsdorf, Jared Schenscher, Dave O'Shaughnessey, Lisa Harvey, Dan Everett, Lincoln Jeffrey, Shane Harris, Rick Woolford, Sarah Schenscher and, of course, the captain of the patrol team 4, of which both my wife and I are members, Fernando Camacho. We will be patrolling this public holiday Monday, which is Adelaide Cup Day, and keeping the beaches safe.

The Marshall Liberal government certainly recognises the importance of these surf lifesaving clubs. It has provided and delivered on a $420,000 election commitment over the four years of the Marshall Liberal government leading to 2022, which means that each year each surf lifesaving club gets $5,000 to put into front-line equipment to keep the beaches they are patrolling very safe. In addition to the government's support, the surf lifesaving clubs are well supported by many local organisations.

The Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club has received fantastic support recently from the Rotary Club of Somerton Park, who provided $12,000 to go towards a new all-terrain vehicle (ATV), which is a fantastic support. It allows roving patrols to go up and down the beach and up to the groyne in the north parts of the Glenelg Beach and down south towards the Broadway kiosk. I really thank the Rotary Club of Somerton Park for that. They presented the ATV in front of over 100 nippers at one of their Saturday training sessions, and I think it is great for the nippers to see how well supported this fantastic volunteer organisation is.

The nippers are out on the beach most Saturdays, but they do not just turn up, of course. You need a very diligent junior committee that puts supports in place, and they are well and ably led by the chairperson of the junior committee of the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club, Justin Ganley. They put in place terrific programs where the kids learn to be surf smart and have an awareness about them of safety on the beach via anything between swims, or wades, or beach flags and boards as well. It is important for the kids to get comfortable on the beach, not only at Glenelg but so they can then take those skills they learn to other beaches not only in South Australia but also in Australia.

If I could just mention briefly the Glenelg Beach itself, it looks quite benign. It seems very safe. Most times it is quite shallow but, unfortunately, there have been tragic drownings at this beach. Quite recently I think there were three drownings of quite young people at the northern part of the beach where the waters do get a bit treacherous around the groyne, so swimmers at Glenelg really do need to be careful. As I said, most of the water is shallow, but, as it gets closer to that groyne, the water has gouged out the sand underneath, and so the water can go from waist deep or chest deep to quite quickly going over your head, and that causes people concern.

Just in February there were two 20-year-old South Korean tourists, ladies who came along, saw the beautiful beach and thought they would go out there. They just waded out. They were not great swimmers, and suddenly, even though they were quite close to the jetty, they found themselves in trouble. The waves just pushed them forward a bit and they found themselves in one of these troughs where the water had gouged out the sand. The water was over their heads, and they had to grab each other to try to stay afloat.

Luckily for them, there were five junior nippers training for the upcoming junior championships and they did a fantastic job. They quickly boarded out the 80 metres and surrounded these girls. They jumped off their boards, allowed those South Korean tourists to grab onto the boards and basically stay a float until the senior lifesavers could arrive.

I really commend those five juniors—Lachy Larven, Quinn Hammersley, Charlie Crowe, Angus Ganley and Astin Rouvray—for their terrific efforts. I quote Lachy, who said, 'We were in the middle of training and two girls started yelling and scheming. They were fully clothed and caught in a rip. I felt pretty proud of myself knowing we saved lives.' I commend those young nippers for their great efforts and for allowing those two South Korean tourists to go home to their families.

The junior chairman, Justin Ganley, who was in charge of training that night said that the club was extremely proud of these children who used their knowledge to assist in the rescue. Certainly the tourists were very happy. Once they had been settled down and brought safely to shore, they came up and gave hugs and a very sincere acknowledgment to those five surf lifesavers. I commend them for keeping our beaches safe, as I commend the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club, and its president, Georgina Cole, for their diligent work in keeping our beaches safe in Glenelg.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (12:44): I rise to support this motion as well because I think it is important that this place's efforts to recognise the importance of our surf lifesaving clubs, and all those South Australians involved with our surf lifesaving clubs, continue.

I am in a relatively unique position of having two surf lifesaving clubs in my electorate. Both the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club and the Grange Surf Life Saving Club in those respective suburbs are almost at each end of my electorate along the coast in the western suburbs. They are terrific clubs not just for the important work that they do; other speakers have spoken at some length about the task of protecting the community through their patrolling and lifesaving efforts.

However, far beyond that, I heard the member for Morphett make comments about clubs and how they involve young children as nippers in their clubs. For many young South Australians, becoming a nipper at a surf lifesaving club is often their first experience of organised sport and recreation activity. It is often an extension of the efforts that they have gone to and their parents and other caregivers have gone to to teach young children how to swim, and getting them out of a pool and into the surf, into the ocean, to further those skills is extremely important.

Beyond that young participation is of course the broader participation of how families continue to become involved in the surf lifesaving clubs. The two clubs in my electorate, both Semaphore and Grange, are renowned statewide for the extraordinary number of members and the extraordinary involvement of the local communities in their clubs. You do not have to talk very long to one of the parents who might be at a function or involved in one of the patrols or one of the other volunteer activities that occur at the clubs to hear the story, 'Well, we just moved into the area and we thought we would go down to the club.' Perhaps it was to have a coffee or a meal or perhaps it was to involve their child or children in the club's activities, and very quickly it is the parents who become involved as volunteers.

It is those volunteers who are the backbone of these clubs. In particular, I would like to mention a couple of names at Grange. Bob and Heather Thompson have an extraordinary record of commitment, volunteering their time, their efforts, their energy to continually take stewardship of key roles within the Grange Surf Life Saving Club. That is a wonderful thing. They leave a legacy that hundreds and hundreds of families in the western suburbs enjoy to this day: a strong, vibrant surf lifesaving club.

Grange is also renowned as the most successful surf lifesaving club when it comes to the competitions in which it participates. Grange presentation nights are really enjoyable and necessarily lengthy nights, such are the awards and such are the pennants, ribbons and other achievements that are won year on year by the Grange Surf Life Saving Club. They not only put a lot of effort into getting young kids, volunteers and families involved but also put a lot of effort into the competitions. Their success speaks for itself, often, as I have spoken about previously in this place, to the great envy of some other surf lifesaving clubs around the state.

The Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club not only puts effort into competing but particularly puts effort into involvement in the local community. I want to mention a couple of people who, throughout my time as the member for Lee, have consistently been involved in the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club. I am thinking of Neil Bisset, Patrick Hansen and Mick Kenny. These people have provided important commitment and leadership to that club over many years. They have all taken the opportunity to begin the process of handing over the reins to new leadership in that club. Paul Breden and Raelene Donnell are now taking on key leadership roles within that club to continue the work.

Of course, the Grange Surf Life Saving Club and the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club have both benefited from recent redevelopments of their premises, which benefit not only the club members who rely on the facilities for the patrolling efforts and the volunteering activities but also the community activities that the clubs are involved with. The Grange Surf Life Saving Club underwent a very extensive redevelopment on a very tricky site.

If anyone does have the opportunity to be down at Grange, whether they are visiting the jetty there (also recently refurbished) or perhaps going to the Grange Hotel, then quite close by they will see the surf lifesaving club premises surrounded quite tightly by its neighbours. It is a stunning facility now—absolutely stunning—and quite rightly is in high demand, not just from people wanting to become involved in the club but also from people wanting to go down to the club for a cup of coffee or even a drink later in the day to enjoy the spectacular views from that club.

The Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club has undergone an extensive redevelopment as well. The developments at these two clubs, along with several others, including Henley, Chiton Rocks and the recently completed works to establish a premises and a facility at Goolwa, were made possible by the bringing forward of substantial funds under the former Labor government to fast-track the developments and the redevelopments of these club facilities. All of them are quite remarkable.

The Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club is a little bit different from some of the other developments, in that it is not an entirely new build. It was effectively a refit of the existing building. I am pleased to say that the City of Charles Sturt, the landlord of the premises there, also took the opportunity to contribute quite significantly to that redevelopment. They also took the opportunity—it must be two or three years ago now—to redevelop the recreation areas around the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club at Point Malcolm Reserve.

When the weather is good, which is often, of course, down by the beach in metropolitan Adelaide, the Point Malcolm Reserve and the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club are absolutely bursting at the seams. Council bashing has become a recent fashion in South Australia, but I think that work and those projects that the City of Charles Sturt has been involved in show some of the important works that a good, hardworking council can contribute to.

The Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club also has a great reputation in the local community for serving meals—very affordable meals—for the local community, particularly on Thursday and Friday nights. It is also a terrific venue for functions and has become a much sought-after venue since its redevelopment. I am sure it is not the principal aim of government-funded projects to enable the commercialisation of these surf lifesaving clubs, but it does have a significant benefit, and for the Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club to be able to host functions like weddings, as it does almost every weekend of the year and also sometimes on other days, provides an important income stream that helps that surf lifesaving club to continue its services in the community and, most importantly, expand its services into the community.

We all know that the trends for drownings and other water rescues continue to increase. Particularly in Adelaide, we have experienced some members of some migrant communities getting into trouble when it comes to trying the water for the first time. Indeed, as the former transport minister, I worked closely with the member for Morphett when he was the mayor of the City of Holdfast Bay to try to introduce measures to reduce the risk of that happening. When you see Semaphore Surf Life Saving Club, as well as all the other surf lifesaving clubs, go to the effort of expanding their activities throughout the community, they are doing a great job of protecting South Australians.

Mr BASHAM (Finniss) (12:54): I would like to thank the members for Lee, Reynell, Morphett and Colton and the minister for their contributions towards this motion. It does point out the importance of the surf lifesaving clubs themselves, their volunteers and the efforts they commit to their communities.

Reflecting on some of the things that have been said, it intrigued me when the minister mentioned that one of his clubs has a road in front of it, and it made me think about one of the clubs in my electorate, Chiton Rocks, which has a railway line in front of it. They actually have to manage getting their gear across the railway line, making sure they avoid the SteamRanger train as it goes through and that they are not impeded in getting whatever they need to the beach in an emergency.

The club have also seen it as an opportunity. They are currently in discussions with SteamRanger and negotiating for a platform to be built at the Chiton Rocks station so that they can have the train stop there and tourists can hop off, go and have a meal or a drink at the Chiton Rocks Surf Lifesaving Club, go and have a swim at the beach and then get back on the train and go back to wherever they came from. It is great to see that initiative and their trying to link in to that service.

That then made me think about that train line. That train line is actually an extension of the original train line built in 1854 between Goolwa and Port Elliot, the first public railway built in the Southern Hemisphere. That was built to bring goods from the River Murray across to Port Elliot to then be shipped to the rest of the world. That then brings me to the next connection: the Flying Fish, which is the name of the boat after which the Port Elliot club has chosen to name all its surfboats.

There was a potentially tragic incident—it was not tragic in the end—when nine sailors were on the Flying Fish during a storm in December 1860 and the boat was being washed up towards the rocks at the northern end of Horseshoe Bay. Luckily, a local resident—the town had only 250 people at the time—by the name of Agen Dent had learnt to swim, which was a bit unusual in those days. He had actually been taught how to swim by the local Ramindjeri people and he felt confident enough in his ability to go out and assist those nine on the Flying Fish.

He tied a fishing line around his waist, tied the other end to a heavy rope, swam out to the boat and was able to rescue all nine sailors on that boat.

That was probably the first act of lifesaving that occurred, back in Horseshoe Bay in 1860, well before the establishment of the club itself. The club has very much embraced that history, recognising the heroics of Agen and naming its surfboats after the Flying Fish, from which those people were rescued at the time.

It shows that we have had an enormous change, from a population of very few people knowing how to swim back then to much of our community now knowing how to swim. We see that people are taking up and enjoying that opportunity. The fact that we also have 22 wonderful surf clubs around South Australia taking advantage of that makes it much safer when you choose to swim in those patrolled areas.

So thank you very much to the volunteers in the surf lifesaving community and thank you very much to the clubs. Thank you also to those who have spoken on this motion, and I would like to commend the motion to the house.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.

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