Pembroke School Year 7 students question Education Minister Blair Boyer on swimming ban

A group of Pembroke School students have forced the Education Minister to come clean on who really banned swimming lessons on SA beaches.

Pembroke students visited The Advertiser on Wednesday and interviewed him on the recent decision to ban kids from ocean-based surfing and swimming lessons. Picture: Matt Loxton

Year 7 students from Pembroke School visited The Advertiser on Wednesday and got the chance to be journalists for the day, interviewing Education Minister Blair Boyer about the recent decision to ban kids from ocean-based surfing and swimming lessons.

The children asked the tough questions forcing Mr Boyer to reveal he wasn’t consulted by the Education Department on the ban.

Gabby was first to grill the minister and asked him why she and her classmates were not allowed to swim in the ocean.

“That’s a very good question and we are currently doing what I hope will be a very quick review that is going to give us some advice, maybe even today (Wednesday), around whether or not we can get kids in the public system back into the water,” Mr Boyer replied.

“Which is what I’d like to see and the Premier (Peter Malinauskas) said he would like to see.”

The Advertiser’s investigations editor Andrew Hough assists Pembroke students to interview Education Minister Blair Boyer on Wednesday. Picture: Matt Loxton

Mr Boyer said he was feeling “positive and hopeful” the decision would be overturned and kids could get back on the beach as soon as possible.

Maggie asked Mr Boyer how soon they would be able to get back in the sea.

“Very soon is my hope, it could be as soon as next week,” he said.

“We’re trying to have access as quickly and swiftly as we can to make sure things are in place to get kids back in the water because I think we can all agree, you’ve got to have that practice particularly in South Australia because we all spend a hell of a lot of time at the beach.

“Hopefully this summer will be a hot one and we’re going to spend time at the beach and we all get the skills we need to do it safely.”

A woman was rushed to hospital with facial injuries after a shark attack near the Port Noarlunga jetty on Friday. Picture: 7NEWS

Ruby then asked Mr Boyer if he agreed with the department’s decision to ban students from swimming.

“We should have been informed so we had the opportunity to put input into it, let me put it that way, is probably the polite way of putting it,” Mr Boyer said.

“But we worked as fast as we can to review it. I’ve said publicly and so has Martin (Westwell, chief executive of the department of education) that we should have been told before a decision was made.

“But I do in some respects feel for the people in the department who are trying to get advice to schools in a couple of hours on Friday afternoon so that they can tell their parents whose kids will be back to the beach Monday morning about whether that was going ahead or not.”

During parliament question time on Wednesday, Member for Narungga Fraser Ellis revealed the Port Vincent Caravan Park had lost $30,000 because of the school swimming lessons ban.

Mr Ellis asked Mr Boyer if the government would compensate businesses that have lost income from the ban.

“Mark and Sharon Haydon of Port Vincent Caravan Park lost $30,000 worth of bookings yesterday alone, Mark Short from Port Vincent Aquatics has 20 casual staff who won’t be paid after next week, thanks to cancellations,” he said.

Mr Boyer said he had spoken to the department about reaching out to some of the excursion and camp providers who had been vocal about the ban to learn the impacts on them and would “take it from there”.

The Department of Education were contacted for comment.