Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As it is high summer, I want to take this opportunity to pay my respects and offer my thanks, on behalf of the communities of the Mornington Peninsula and Westernport, to the network of surf lifesaving clubs in the region. Those that play a critical role—though it is not limited to these—are Portsea Surf Life Saving Club, Sorrento Surf Life Saving Club, Gunnamatta Surf Life Saving Club, Dromana Surf Life Saving Club, Mount Martha Surf Life Saving Club, Point Leo Surf Life Saving Club and Woolamai Beach Life Saving Club on Phillip Island. In this brief acknowledgement, I want to talk about the clubs’ contribution to water safety, their contribution to their local community and the work of individual clubs. I know the issue of water safety very closely. I represent a coastal electorate. On all sides, the Mornington Peninsula is highly valued as a swimming destination—from Westernport to Phillip Island and the Bass Coast. Each summer, lives are lost. More significantly, many lives which might have been lost are saved as a result of these surf lifesaving clubs.

The clubs carry out two water safety functions. They carry out the immediate function of preventing the loss of life by executing rescues and patrolling the beaches. This is largely done by volunteers who give of their time freely and with great energy throughout the year and, in particular, over the summer months. Not only the clubs but each individual involved deserves our thanks for that. They have a second water safety function: the long-term training of those who would be water users. They have nippers programs whose participants number in their hundreds—small children from the age of five and upwards—around the Mornington Peninsula, Westernport, Phillip Island and the Bass Coast. This is a tremendous long-term contribution to water safety and water awareness.

James Keeran from the Point Leo Surf Life Saving Club is helping me through the bronze medallion process—it may be a slow process, and I apologise for that! I see the energy and enthusiasm of people such as James Keeran replicated across each of these surf lifesaving clubs.

The second major area I want to discuss is the community contribution. These clubs not only help protect their individual beaches but are the hub of local community activity. They draw in people who are living on the peninsula and going through school, as well as visitors. Some of them have well above 500 members. Each club serves as a great point of productive, active community work. They are a binding hub of community activity. I congratulate all the organisers, officials and volunteers who help run each of the seven clubs. Beyond water safety, what they do as community centres is an outstanding contribution to the life, work, function and energy of the Mornington Peninsula, Westernport, Bass Coast and Phillip Island.

This brings me to the work of the individual clubs. Each club is carrying out activities. Portsea has its very famous annual swim—similarly, Sorrento. Gunnamatta patrols a beach and has had swims over the years. It is a very dangerous surf beach, and numerous lives are saved at Gunnamatta. Dromana, where I was fortunate to swim at the open challenge last weekend—albeit with a very poor result, some would say—runs on very small numbers, and is in need of additional support. To Peter Doyle and the team there, I say congratulations. Let me mention Steve Burt, Andrew Felsinger and everybody involved at Mount Martha. They recently ran the Quinn Swim on Australia Day with over 500 entrants and had a wonderful result. I also mention James Keeran and everybody else at Port Leo—they have an enormous nippers program—and Woolamai, which has run the Phillip Island and Cowes classics and is about to run the San Remo Channel Challenge. You do wonderful work and save many lives, which is fundamentally important. I congratulate you and thank you.