Pat Farmer (Macarthur, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Youth and Sport) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, I refer to the $12.2 million worth of funding for saving lives in water and the $10 million national recreation safety organisations’ continuation of funding. I recently met with the Royal Life Saving Society in the Northern Territory, who have a program called the Remote Pools Program, which I am sure you are aware of. They are funded by the Department of Health and Ageing from 2005 until April 2008 and require funding to continue with this program for 2008-09. The portfolio budget statement on page 216 states that the target is for ‘a continuing downward trend in the number of deaths from water and snow related accidents’. Are you aware of the Remote Pools Program that the Royal Life Saving Society in the Northern Territory operates, and will this program continue? Can you guarantee that some of this funding will go towards the Remote Pools Program and that the Remote Pools Program can continue? Will this funding be proportionate to areas of need or distributed across the states and territories based purely on population? What is the current rate of deaths from water and snow related accidents? What actual figure are you aiming to reduce this to?

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