Tony Abbott pledged $5 million towards Manly Life Saving Club redevelopment

Warringah MP Tony Abbott has pledged $5 million towards the complete redevelopment of Manly Life Saving Club.

TONY Abbott has pledged $5 million towards the complete redevelopment of Manly Life Saving Club.

With the federal election thought to just be a matter of weeks away it is the Warringah MP’s first fresh big money pledge of the campaign.

However, Mr Abbott said the pledge was not contingent on himself or his party returning to power.

Tony Abbott at the surf club announcement.

“It is not an election promise it is a budget commitment so it is absolutely locked in,” he said in a press conference at the Life Saving Club this evening.

He said while there was a lot of planning work to do, they were working towards an upper limit of $20 million for the redevelopment.

Mr Abbott was flanked by Northern Beaches Council Mayor Michael Reagan and State Liberal MP for Manly James Griffin as he made the announcement.

Mr Abbott said he was hopeful Mr Griffin and the newly elected Liberal State Government would be able to find a similar amount of money for the project.

“The most famous surf club in Australia should not be falling apart and bursting at the seams”, Mr Abbott said.

“When the current structure was built nearly forty years ago the Manly Life Saving club had just 70 female members. Now there are 760. The club has over 1,880 total members and looks after more than two million visitors a year. It’s a nationally significant institution that warrants federal support”.

A shot of a storage room at the existing surf clubhouse. Picture: Adam Yip / Manly Daily

Club treasurer Craig Haskins said the facility was in desperate need of an upgrade.

“We have outgrown the current club facilities which are dated, maintenance intensive and inadequate for the size of our nippers, along with youth and senior male and female lifesaving and competition membership,” he said.

“The rebuild of the club will deliver modern and innovative facilities in a structure that is planned to be environmentally responsible and resource-efficient.”

Mr Haskins said the intention was not to create a Bondi Icebergs-style facility which would compete with local venues.

Instead it was about creating a functional and sustainable base for the club and the community.

He added the development would also create an opportunity to have a museum on the site.

“We have an obligation to preserve the history and tradition of surf lifesaving,” he said. “We have a massive amount of memorabilia in storage off-site because we just don’t have the room.

“One of the great things we’ll be able to do when we do our rebuild is we’ll have a living surf history museum. We’ve got everything from antique craft to medals and memorabilia from every era and from all the great champions of Manly.”

Tony Abbott with members of the club

Mr Abbott’s main opponent in the battle for Warringah said in February that pushing for Federal funding for the redevelopment would be one of her first priorities if elected later this year.

Mr Abbott’s announcement comes on the same day Ms Steggall, detailed her first major policy.

As exclusively revealed in the Manly Daily she called for major mental healthcare reforms to combat the country’s suicide crisis.