Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last summer, unfortunately, two international students from the University of New South Wales, fresh from Nepal, went for a swim at Maroubra Beach. Tragically, they never went home; they drowned in difficult seas at the northern end of Maroubra. We have had an increase in drownings in Australia over the last summer once again: 291 Australians have drowned. Unfortunately, an increasing number are from multicultural backgrounds. They don't get the surf- and water-safety education that many Australians get.

In the wake of the drowning of those two Nepalese students, I approached the University of New South Wales and Surf Life Saving New South Wales, requesting they consider running water- and surf-safety seminars for their new crop of international students each year to teach them the importance of swimming between the red and yellow flags at the beach, obeying the instructions of lifesavers and how to identify rips. I'm very pleased to say that recently two of these seminars were run with a new crop of students from international backgrounds at Tamarama and Maroubra. In the course of their O Week this year, 7,000 international students received a basic education in surf safety. I call it the ocean classroom. It's just as important as their normal classes in ensuring that their time in Australia is rewarding, fulfilling and, importantly, safe so that they can enjoy Australia's beaches. I want to thank the University of New South Wales and Surf Life Saving New South Wales and all their volunteers for putting on those important seminars.