Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about so many tragedies when it comes to drownings, especially in the multicultural community. On Mother's Day a four-year-old boy, Ali Aminzadah, tragically drowned in Officer, in my electorate of La Trobe; our thoughts and prayers go to that family from the Afghan community.

In the past year there have been several devastating drownings in our region. In April 2023, a father and son from Narre Warren lost their lives while attempting to rescue each other; the son was 21 and the father was 59. I went to the wake with the family and the community. It was so devastating.

In January 2024 a Melbourne nurse, two university students and a tourist from India tragically drowned off the coast of Phillip Island—the worst drowning tragedy in Victoria for two decades. Last month a father and grandfather from Clyde North drowned in a hotel pool on the Gold Coast. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those families.

As the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I find the multicultural community very much over-represent the drowning figures. When you get to the root cause, quite often people are coming from countries such as India where access to swimming is difficult. Councils play a major role in Australia when it comes to swimming; they provide learn-to-swim schools, which is fantastic. The fees for someone to learn to swim at the moment are, for 10 lessons, between $200 and $250.

My concern is this: when the councils manage the pools and operate the learn-to-swim centres, there is a conflict of interest when it comes to maintaining the safety of those swimming compared to the financial interests of the learn-to-swim schools. What I've personally witnessed is a father with their son or daughter being targeted and asked: 'Are you giving professional lessons to your children? Are you a coach?' It can be a family friend who, quite often, in the past has been a squad swimmer and is a very able swimmer, but they get targeted. In actual fact, a number of councils have a code of conduct where it says that that person can be evicted for giving so-called coaching lessons.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if the person gives lessons to a child if that child is an able swimmer. It's crazy to have lifeguards at swimming pools being encouraged to go up to people and ask: 'Is that your child? Is that your friend's child? Are you a professional coach?' The councils have one responsibility: to make sure that they help kids learn to swim in a fun and safe environment, not to target those who can teach their kids.

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