Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, I was able to visit the Bronte Surf Life Saving Club with the president, Basil Scaffidi. It was tremendous to be able to see that great institution, with prospects for a much larger surf club. In the past year, regrettably, our surf clubs have had to do a lot of heavy lifting in the community. During the Bondi terrorist attacks, North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club patrons and officials went out of their way to help people on the day of the massacre but also to provide services to the community afterwards, including hosting state government, mental health services and the like. One of the things that these surf clubs are having to contend with at the moment is what to do about sharks, particularly in Sydney, where there have been a number of attacks of late, including one at Coogee just a couple of weeks ago.

It's always going to be good to get the best information that we can muster. For that reason, I think we should get more up-to-date information from the CSIRO, as the Commonwealth's pre-eminent science organisation, on the numbers of sharks and the nature of sharks. I think it would be helpful and would aid the debate that we're going to have around the measures that might be required. A lot of the measures that have been used to protect surfers and beachgoers from sharks may not have the effect that people imagine that they might have. It is an area where we are going to benefit from more scientific information. It's been almost 10 years since CSIRO has done a body of work on shark populations on the east coast. It would be very helpful if the next survey could be done within the next six to nine months.