Page 2958 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 October 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The confidence gained by knowing how to swim opens a gateway to a huge number of water-based activities—for example, sailing, boating, kayaking, canoeing, scuba diving, snorkelling and even parasailing. The confidence and enjoyment in life that these activities can provide brings immense benefits to the individual. To adapt an old cliche, a rising tide floats all swimmers.
It is not right that there are whole groups of people excluded from experiencing the benefits of swimming that I have just talked through. As we see, over and over again across a whole variety of areas, helping more people in our community to achieve greater physical and mental wellbeing has benefits far beyond the individuals concerned. Having a city full of healthy, happy swimmers creates flow-on benefits to the budget bottom line in health and social services. The motion I am putting forward today is designed to ensure that all Canberrans can access the services that so many of us take for granted.
There are already some programs in place for swimmers with disability, and for adult beginner swimmers, such as the Y’s SwimAbility sessions at Gungahlin, Stromlo and Civic pools, and the swimming lesson packages put together by the Refugee and Migrant Swimming Project. What I am calling for is a more coordinated approach with certainty of long-term funding, and to follow up the one-month trial of the gender-specific swim sessions that were undertaken in October 2019 at the Canberra Olympic Pool—now more than three years ago.
I will just detour into a bit of information about that trial, because there were some valuable lessons from it which I think we can apply to future efforts in the area. Firstly, the session times were not well chosen and conflicted with family responsibilities, which may well have impacted the participation rates. Daytime sessions are more likely to appeal to the people that we wish to encourage into this activity. Secondly, the Canberra Olympic Pool was not the best venue. Booking out an Olympic-sized venue—even with the good effort made to get advance word out about the trial—risks alienating too many regular swimmers, and this was seen in the pushback that was received from the community.
I recommend that we start examining a smaller pool. I am pleased by the example set by the Muslim Sisters to ACTion, who will be running a Saturday afternoon program targeting women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to be hosted at the Aquatots pool in Gold Creek, in my electorate of Yerrabi. I note that there are many other similar sized pool complexes across Canberra, and I think these might be more suitably sized venues.
Thirdly, there was no continuation of the program following the trial. Partially, this was caused by COVID-19 restrictions, but if there had been a longer trial it would have been interesting to see how the numbers built and whether the pushback eased off as other pool patrons became accustomed to the timetable changes. I hope that the program at Gold Creek will be given time to build numbers via word of mouth as well as more organised forms of promotion.
All of this stresses the fact that we need to get this right. I believe that the way to do that is through a coordinated, targeted and focused policy that prioritises inclusivity and long-term outcomes. Today, I am calling on the government, firstly, to commit to
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video