Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to inform the House of some very positive developments in my electorate of Cook. I have previously spoken in this place about the On the Same Wave program, funded by the Australian government and in partnership with the Sutherland Shire Council and Surf Life Saving New South Wales. On the Same Wave has achieved great progress in building cultural harmony in the community and beach related activities, particularly in the Cronulla area.

In the very early stages of On the Same Wave, focus groups were conducted to get a sense of how the Lebanese community and other culturally diverse communities in Sydney felt about surf-lifesaving following the events of December 2005 in Cronulla. Despite 98 per cent of people saying at the beginning of these focus groups that they would not consider being lifesavers, 60 per cent indicated that they would be interested to learn skills associated with lifesaving and 80 per cent indicated they would like to see ethnic lifesavers patrolling on our beaches.

As a consequence, On the Same Wave was designed to focus on increasing membership in surf-lifesaving and, just as importantly, increasing awareness of water safety amongst people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Most of the activities involved giving young people a basic understanding of surf safety and a basic overview of surf-lifesaving.

I would like to speak about a particular group of young people from Lakemba Sports and Recreation Club—and I am glad to see the member for Watson at the table. This group included 17 young people from the Lebanese community, who had no previous experience in surf-lifesaving but who were eager to learn the skills to volunteer to patrol our beaches. They began training in November last year and were awarded their bronze medallions in January. They had varying abilities. Some were already exceptional swimmers and some had very little swimming ability at all. One young lady who began with very limited swimming abilities managed to pass her bronze medallion through sheer determination and application to her training.

This particular young lady wears a Burkini, a full-length lycra suit with a hijab head-covering. It was described by CNN as not too figure-hugging to embarrass but tight enough to allow its wearer to swim freely. I think it shows great progress that there is a place for swimwear that takes into account cultural sensitivities and is sufficiently modest to allow greater participation by Muslim women in our great Australian beach culture. The Burkini is soon to be manufactured in the iconic red and yellow colours of Surf Life Saving Australia.

Thanks to On the Same Wave, there are now 17 new lifesavers patrolling the four beaches in the Cronulla area, all from Sydney’s Lebanese community. This group from Lakemba has shown tremendous courage. There has been constant media interest in their training, and many of them began with very limited swimming skills, yet have still overcome all of this to become patrolling surf-lifesavers. The surf clubs in my electorate which are welcoming these new members have watched them train very hard and have a great deal of respect for what they have achieved.

I would like to thank the group’s trainer, Mr Tony Coffey. His patience and his commitment to these young people have been unswerving. He has obviously done a great job. As we are all aware, there are great people in the surf-lifesaving movement. This year they celebrate their 100th anniversary, and they are capable of great things, as Mr Coffey has shown us all in this case.

I would like to thank Mr Robb, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, whose support of this program has been invaluable. His commitment to making real progress in community harmony, following the disturbances in Cronulla, has been significant. I welcome the new parliamentary secretary, Teresa Gambaro, to her new role and look forward to working with her in this very important area. It is an area that has great significance for the people of my electorate and, more widely, the people of greater Sydney. I am very proud of the forward steps that have been made by the community since December 2005. I commend to the House the courage and determination shown by these new lifesavers, and I thank the surf-lifesaving community for their ongoing support in helping encourage diversity and tolerance on our beaches. We, together with the member for Watson, look forward to working on a combined initiative to send young people—both young lifesavers and young Lebanese, male and female—to Lebanon for 10 days to further develop this cultural link between our two communities and to strengthen Australia’s multicultural society.

See this speech in context