Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to highlight the remarkable work of my local constituent David Field of Kingscliff. David has been volunteering for the Australian Volunteers for International Development program since 2011. In 2011 to 2013, he was assigned to the Philippine Red Cross updating their lifesaving and lifeguarding techniques. On the major tourist island of Boracay, he established a professional lifeguard service as well as junior water safety projects and a cultural sporting activity to highlight water safety.

In 2013, he brought a senior Red Cross trainer to Australia to learn about surf lifesaving under the Zahn lifesaving scholarship, a scheme set up by David and funded by a local Kingscliff business owner. This trainer returned to Cebu and went on to set up a volunteer lifesaving service. In 2014, David accepted another volunteer position in lifesaving development, this time in Danang in Vietnam. Following the completion of the project, David was asked to return and develop more program to achieve and maintain world standards in beach management and water safety.

David has relied upon the willingness of fellow North Coast surf lifesavers to travel to Vietnam to help him develop surf lifesaving and drowning prevention awareness. He has hosted three such tours by Australian lifesavers, including a tour in 2016 by 29 junior lifesavers and their parents from the Cudgen Headland Surf Life Saving Club. Surf Life Saving Australia and Surf Life Saving New South Wales have also been very generous in their support, including assisting David with the shipping of second-hand rescue equipment from Australian surf clubs to Vietnam. To facilitate lifesaving development, David has often had to step beyond the constraints of the volunteer program and create opportunities to raise the level of involvement. David has also arranged surf lifesaving carnivals in Vietnam and has organised for lifeguards to attend world conferences and visits to Australia for additional lifesaving education and training—all financed with the Zahn scholarship.

In addition to his work on the Australian government's volunteer program, David has been active in lifesaving development in Thailand since 2001, and in 2004 he founded the Phuket Lifeguard Club with a group of like-minded Thais to improve water safety standards in Southern Thailand. In 2009, the Phuket Lifeguard Club took over the contract to provide lifeguard services at 11 local beaches, and they then became the Phuket Lifeguard Services—a program modelled on David's experience as a professional lifeguard with Surf Life Saving Australia. In its first season managing those local beaches, fatalities during the monsoon season dropped to single figures, after a high in 2008 of 44. David will continue his work in Phuket in 2017 with a team of Australian lifesavers who will train more than 100 lifeguards.

This journey of lifesaving development and projects and raising awareness in South East Asia has been a really passionate interest not only of David but also of his wife Susan and sons Blake and Lachlan. Individuals like David are an inspiration to us all. I would like to thank him for his dedication to volunteering and improving the lives of others both here locally in his surf lifesaving commitment but of course all of that in South East Asia. He has made a huge difference and I commend him on the remarkable work that he is doing both locally and internationally.