Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Parliamentary Friends of Surf Life Saving Australia, I was honoured to attend Surf Life Saving Australia's national awards of excellence to celebrate and pay tribute to some of our country's best and most heroic surf-lifesavers. With 167,000 members and 300 surf clubs throughout the country, it is our largest volunteer movement. Awards on the evening went to a number of clubs. Western Australia's Secret Harbour Surf Life Saving Club was a standout, receiving three of the major awards, including the prestigious Club of the Year Award, Lifesaver of the Year Award, which was won by Robert Bates, and Assessor of the Year Award, which went to Sharee Hart. South Narrabeen's Andy Cross was named the DHL volunteer of the year with more than 810 volunteer hours this year.

Those in attendance had their heart stolen by eight-year-old Zoe Jolley, who received a meritorious award for making an outstanding rescue in April this year. Swimming with her mother at Wild Cattle Creek, Zoe spotted another young girl in trouble, struggling to stay afloat in the water. Zoe put all of her nipper training into practice, paddled over to the other girl, kept her calm, and rescued her on her paddle board. The amazing thing about this story is that Zoe lives in Texas in the United States and was here in Australia with her father and her mother and took up nippers for that short period. Congratulations to Zoe.

I congratulate Surf Life Saving Australia on the event and thank all the volunteers for their tireless work on our beaches each summer.