Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in the House tonight about important health initiatives for families in the Ryan electorate. The first is water safety and the second is being sun smart.

Summer is just around the corner, and no doubt many local families will be spending time in the pool, at the beach or putting the boat into the Brisbane River. With all the fun of summer, it's important to take a moment to ensure the safety of our kids. I spoke a lot about families during my maiden speech, and making sure that our families are protected and looked after is deeply important to me. As a dad to a young son, it is something I am very conscious of. I take my son to swimming lessons every week, or as much as I can manage, at the same school where I learnt to swim as a boy, the John Carew Swim School in Chapel Hill. Teaching kids to switch is a very simple and important way that parents can prevent their kids from drowning. Even at a young age, simple skills of turning around and grabbing the wall behind them can be practised so that, if the worst happens and a child falls into a pool, they will have the habit of what to do already instilled in them.

Tragically, 965 children aged from zero to four years drowned in Australia between 1 July 1993 and 30 June 2018. Accidental falls into water were recorded as the leading activity resulting in drowning, and swimming pools are the leading location where this happens to our kids. The Ryan electorate has many wonderful swim schools, so there is no excuse for Ryan parents. As well as teaching children to swim, the other important thing that parents can do this summer is to actively supervise their kids. Heartbreakingly, it only takes a moment of inattention for the very worst scenario to happen. In an age where we are constantly bombarded by distractions—by our phone, by social media and by friends and family—it is so important to make sure that we are always attentive if our kids are near bodies of water.

The government is committed to helping more Australians learn to swim and enjoy the water as part of a fit and healthy lifestyle. Working in partnership with Swimming Australia, the Community Swimming Grants Program allows organisations the opportunity to apply for grants of up to $10,000 and has been delivered as part of the Morrison government's $28.9 million Move It AUS—Participation Grants Program. These grants have a particular focus on improving opportunities for people with disabilities and from diverse backgrounds.

Just as important this summer is to be sun smart. Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world. More than 2,200 Australians a year die from this almost entirely preventable disease. Approximately two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they are 70. Childhood and adolescence are critical periods where UV radiation is more likely to cause skin cancer than later in life. It's estimated that 50 per cent of our total UV exposure occurs before even the age of 20. Therefore, sunscreen education and staying smart as a kid is so vital, and that's where kids and parents have an important role to play.

It was a great pleasure to meet with a local resident, Benita, last Friday to talk about how she and I can combine in a new local campaign to encourage schools and students to be more dedicated to applying sunscreen during the school day. We know that sunscreen is meant to be applied every four hours to be most effective. So, even if parents are applying it to kids before they leave for school, it's incumbent upon the schools and those kids to make sure they're reapplying before they go out to play in the midday sun. Benita, who is a nurse, has seen what happens when people aren't sun safe, and she's had to deal with those effects and the effects that they have on families and friends around them. I congratulate her for her dedication to the health of our local children and for putting forward the idea that we can put together a campaign to make sure that schools are more proactive in helping kids to be sun smart and apply sunscreen regularly. I look forward to working with her on that.

I encourage all Ryan residents, including parents, to make sure that during the summer, while they're having a lot of fun, be it in the water or out in the sun, they're making sure their kids are safe, that they are looked after, that they're supervised and that they're being sun smart.

House adjourned at 20:00

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Zimmerman) took the chair at 10:30.