Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

Every drowning death in Australia is a preventable tragedy that impacts loved ones and hurts communities. Australians, living in a country girt by sea, have long loved beaches, rivers and pools. We are a country drawn to the water, with a long history of success as swimmers and sailors and a deep appreciation of summer, salt water and fresh water. Names like Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe and Jessica Watson hold special resonance in the Australian psyche—world-beaters who have made Australia proud in or on the water. We as a country are blessed with some of the best beaches, rivers and recreational facilities in the world, and we are rightly proud of our connection to the water. You can hear it in our language: Banjo Paterson poems set by rivers, Tim Winton books set by beaches and colloquialisms like 'not all oars in the water'. We know and love our island nation, and rightly so.

It is not hard to see why Australians are drawn to the water and subsequently why universal water safety is so important to the Australian community. Australia is an increasingly diverse country, and not everyone has the swimming ability to match their enthusiasm. In some tragic cases, some children do not have the supervision that they need. I am a keen swimmer myself and look forward to swimming in several open water races in my electorate this summer. But even strong swimmers know that rips and unexpected changes in the surf or the current can place any swimmer at risk.

I recall attending an event a few days after Australia Day 2015 which was organised by some of the dedicated volunteers of the Brighton Life Saving Club and supported by Surf Life Saving Australia, among others. These volunteers organised for a few dozen new Australians with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, mostly from Afghanistan and South Sudan, to travel from their homes in the city of greater Dandenong to the Brighton Life Saving Club to attend swimming and water safety classes. Many of these new Australians were my constituents and in talking to them I learned that many had never set foot in the water. This inspiring event introduced these Australians to the enjoyment of swimming under the supervision of trained lifesavers. This is an example of our great multicultural community working in hand with one of Melbourne's great lifesaving clubs to reduce the number of drownings among the Australian community, and it is an example that I would like to see replicated around the country. There are, tragically, many ways that Australians have drowned in the past year, but many of these deaths could have been prevented—in particular, boating deaths where lifejackets were not worn.

Life-saving clubs, AUSTSWIM and the Australian Water Safety Council do so much to reduce the number of drowning deaths and Labor congratulates these organisations on their tireless work. The sad fact is that 280 people drowned in 2015-16 and many Australians would be surprised that three-quarters of drowning incidents occurred during activities other than swimming. Less than half of drowning deaths were in the ocean, with 21 per cent of drownings in rivers, creeks and dams, 16 per cent from boating accidents and 14 per cent from falls into water. Tragically, 10 people drowned in baths in 2015-16.

We have come a long way over the past few decades when it comes to water safety. Secure fences are now standard features of backyard pools and children's water safety is taught near universally and early, but there are many other ways Australians have not moved with the times and with the research. Too many Australians still drink and swim, too many swim alone and too many Australians do not wear a lifejacket when boating. It is my hope than in just a few years these habits of some Australians will be gone and looked back on with the same disbelief with which we would now look at fenceless pools. Labor commends the work of Australia's peak water safety bodies: Royal Life Saving, Surf Life Saving, AUSTSWIM and the Australian Water Safety Council. Each of these bodies has our ongoing support to reduce the number of drownings in Australia. We are a nation that loves water and a nation of the best swimmers in the world, but we can be a nation with the safest water culture as well. Labor supports any move by the government to make this happen.

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