Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the motion that acknowledges 2007 as the Year of the Surf Lifesaver as well as the celebration of the 100th anniversary of surf-lifesaving in Australia. I also acknowledge the tremendous role that surf-lifesaving clubs play in saving Australian lives and the huge sacrifice that surf-lifesaving volunteers give to the Australian community—especially in my electorate, which has the coast of the Gulf of St Vincent as its western boundary.

I have attended numerous functions and awards nights at surf-lifesaving clubs throughout the electorate of Hindmarsh and, as a result, have had the honour of meeting some of Australia’s most dedicated surf-lifesavers. The surf-lifesaving clubs of Glenelg, Grange, Henley, Semaphore and West Beach, which are all within the electorate of Hindmarsh, have for generations protected thousands of Australians along the shores of South Australia. They all work together as part of South Australia’s surf-lifesaving clubs network. These clubs contribute immensely to the South Australian community by addressing issues such as safety, physical activity, youth development, training and education. I saw firsthand youth development when my own children were nippers at the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club many years ago.

These clubs provide a centre that enables all members of the community to engage with each other in a healthy environment that focuses on the importance of family. All clubs involved in the South Australian surf-lifesaving clubs incorporate programs such as peer support groups and family orientation groups which encourage family involvement and support for members within the clubs and, at the same time, patrol the beaches to keep them safer for the people who use them.

I have always been involved with community groups and sporting clubs, and the sense of community and the sense of belonging that is created through these surf-lifesaving clubs is incredibly important to our society. Community organisations such as the surf-lifesaving clubs of South Australia get people out of their homes and into the community. It gives us the opportunity to connect with one another and to care about each other and discover that we all have more similarities than differences and, at the same time, do good work by saving lives and patrolling the beaches. I would like to pay a special tribute to all the volunteers who make up the surf-lifesaving clubs in my electorate of Hindmarsh—that is, the Glenelg Surf Lifesaving Club, Grange, Henley Beach, Semaphore and West Beach. These clubs rely on their volunteers to ensure that they remain active and functioning on a daily basis. Without those volunteers, these clubs would not exist.

The mission of the South Australian surf-lifesaving clubs is to save lives on the beaches through their patrolling of the beaches as well as other means such as education, prevention and rescue services. All of this frames the actions of those clubs in my electorate and clubs all around Australia, of course. There are over 5,500 members aged seven years and over in South Australia alone in surf-lifesaving clubs. Every one of those 5,500 members contributes to the safety of our beaches in South Australia. For example, the Glenelg Surf Life Saving Club has over 400 members and plays a significant role in Adelaide’s beach side suburbs. Glenelg is one of South Australia’s busiest beaches, attracting beach goers from all over South Australia, Australia and overseas. Other beaches such as Grange, Henley Beach, Semaphore and West Beach also attract thousands of beach lovers, and the clubs have protected these beaches for decades.

It is a pleasure to support surf-lifesavers and their ongoing work of saving lives, their training in water skills and resuscitation and their commitment to instilling in people an appreciation for preventing and neutralising potentially dangerous situations. Prevention is always the preferred means of problem solving or remedial action, and there is no better way of reducing unnecessary deaths by drowning than through the development of the very skills that will ordinarily enable a person to take care of themselves in and around water.

I am sure the effort that has gone into water-skilling through all surf-lifesaving clubs over time is a leading contributing factor in the gradual reduction in drowning deaths—both numerically and as a proportion of the population. So I would like to thank the surf-lifesaving clubs of Australia and especially the clubs within my electorate—Glenelg, Grange, Henley, Semaphore and West Beach. They are a respected, diligent success and I encourage all Australians to praise their commitment to sustaining and saving lives around the nation, throughout South Australia and in my home town of Adelaide.

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