{"id":1289,"date":"2019-01-21T17:34:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T17:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=1289"},"modified":"2019-01-21T17:34:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T17:34:23","slug":"swim-smart-labors-plan-to-keep-our-kids-safe-in-the-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/01\/21\/swim-smart-labors-plan-to-keep-our-kids-safe-in-the-water\/","title":{"rendered":"SWIM SMART \u2013 LABOR\u2019S PLAN TO KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE IN THE WATER"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nA Shorten Labor Government will make sure Aussie kids have access to swimming and water safety lessons in primary school.
\nWhether it\u2019s at the beach, the river or the backyard pool \u2013 enjoying the water is part of Australian life.
\nAussies love swimming, but too many young people are growing up without learning sufficient water safety skills to keep them safe.
\nIn 2017-18, nearly 250 people drowned in Australian waterways. One in five drownings were people under the age of 25.
\nThis summer has been particularly tragic with\u00a065 drownings in our waterways<\/a>.
\nWe want to make sure Australian children are strong swimmers and safe in the water.
\nCurrently, access to school-based swimming lessons is inconsistent, with access depending on their location, type of school and whether their parents can afford private lessons.
\nThis is unfair and unsafe. We don\u2019t want children to miss out.
\nThe Swim Smart program will deliver more swimming and water safety lessons for students during the school term.
\nFrom the 2020 school year, we will fund additional swimming lessons for schools that need it, catch-up lessons for kids needing extra support, and more support for the cost of transport and pool entry fees.
\nThe new national program will be based on the Royal Life Saving Australia\u2019s Year Four National Water Safety Standards. This includes the goal that children can swim 50 metres, tread water and know how to respond if they fall into water unexpectedly.
\nCurrently, about one in five kids leave primary school unable to swim 50 metres.
\nLabor will work with states and territories, Catholic and Independent schools to deliver the program to schools who require extra support. We will also work with local government, swim schools and lifesaving clubs to help ensure students have access.
\nThe program will also provide additional support to children with disability, to ensure they can participate in water safety and learn to swim programs just like their class mates.
\nSwimming lessons aren\u2019t just something parents should have to organise on weekends or during the holidays. It\u2019s a critical part of growing up safe in Australia, so it should be part of the school term.
\nThe policy has been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office to have a budget impact of $46 million over the forward estimates, and will be in addition to existing state and territory programs.
\nLabor can fund extra swimming lessons for kids because we\u2019ve made tough budget decisions to make multinationals pay their fair share of tax, close tax loopholes used by the top end of town, and we won\u2019t give a tax cut to the big banks.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Shorten Labor Government will make sure Aussie kids have access to swimming and water safety lessons in primary school. Whether it\u2019s at the beach, the river or the backyard pool \u2013 enjoying the water is part of Australian life. Aussies love swimming, but too many young people are growing up without learning sufficient water … Continue reading “SWIM SMART \u2013 LABOR\u2019S PLAN TO KEEP OUR KIDS SAFE IN THE WATER”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}