25/11/2020
And so another young person from the culturally and linguistically diverse community dies at the sea in Scarborough. And yet again we implore the “authorities” to do something about educating these people coming in from overseas about water safety.
This young lad had only been here two years. He came from a land locked country. He would have had little or no exposure to the treachery of the seas and oceans that we may have grown up with here in Australia. Issues of swimming etc would not ever have been a consideration.
Personally, I grew up in South East Asia. I have lived here for 45 years. I do not know how to swim. But this is not considered a major failing in my cultural community. Here, in Australia, I would be a rarity.
In recent years we have seen a number of deaths in our migrant communities attributable to water issues. It is imperative that we teach some element of water safety to everyone coming to our shores. We hope that the Minister for Multicultural Interests regards this with the same urgency as did Dr Mike Nahan, when he was the Minister. He funded programs to achieve this back then.
Sincerely
Suresh Rajan