Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about an issue very close to my heart. For some years now I have been the patron of the South Australian Disabled Surfers Association. As a result, I know first-hand the joy that can be brought to a young person, in particular a disabled young person, when they are able to be involved in an aquatic program. You can imagine my disappointment, Mr Speaker, when the South Australian state Labor government cut funding to the school swimming and aquatics programs. After much public outrage, the South Australian minister for education, Jane Lomax-Smith, announced that the swimming program would be re-funded, but she has ignored the plight of students involved in the aquatics program. The decision by the South Australian state Labor government to discontinue the funding for the swimming program and the aquatics program could be likened to Dumb and Dumber, by Minister Lomax-Smith.

Last Friday I attended a rally organised by various schools and aquatics providers as well as the Australian Education Union in Adelaide. Despite its pleas of being apolitical, the AEU refused to allow me as the patron of the Disabled Surfers Association to speak at the rally because I was a federal Liberal member. The union members’ ownership of the Australian Labor Party has now reached a point where they are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of South Australian students for the Labor Party’s gain. This, accompanied by the Labor Party’s refusal to allow journalists who were not union members into their state conference in SA on the weekend, shows that the Labor Party are committed to ensuring—(Time expired)