An emotional Malcolm Turnbull has recounted how his father saved him from drowning in Bondi’s surf, as he announced $3m in funding for water safety.

The prime minister, dressed down in a polo shirt and suffering from a summer cold, told those gathered at the Bondi surf club it was New Year’s Day and therefore necessarily casual, as he spoke of the importance of surf and water safety.

Talking about the work of surf lifesavers and the need to follow directions, Turnbull held back tears as he remembered his own near-death experience as a child.

“I have spent much of my young life on this beach, it looks very placid today and it generally is, it is a safe beach I would say, compared to many others,” he said.

“But you can get into plenty of trouble here, at Bondi.

“I remember as a kid, just off Ben Buckler [point] here, falling off my surfer plane and getting into a lot of … I was in plenty of trouble and I can still see, it is hard to talk about this without being a bit emotional, but I can still see my father swimming through the surf.

“Swimming through. And he got me.

“And that is what lifesavers do.”

The money, an extension of an existing program, which allows surf lifesaving clubs and other water safety organisations to invest in equipment and programs, will be used for further swimming lessons and new technology, such as drones, to patrol the surf.

Turnbull’s announcement came a day after the death of a man who drowned after becoming caught in a rip while swimming with his brother on the NSW central coast.

The Parramatta man, aged in his 30s, was swimming with his brother near the patrolled area of Frazer Park beach on Sunday afternoon when the two men became distressed in the water.



A surfer saw the man being pulled further out to sea and swam to try to help him, but a wave washed the pair of them onto the rocks, Surf Lifesaving NSW said.

By the time lifeguards reached them, the man’s condition had deteriorated and he was unconscious and unresponsive.

He was given CPR treatment but all attempts to revive the man were unsuccessful.

Lifesavers managed to pull his brother out of the water and he was treated by paramedics.

NSW surf lifesavers urged beachgoers to be careful as they prepared for one of their busiest patrol days of the season.

Surf Life Saving NSW said New Year’s Day was traditionally one of its biggest days, and situations could quickly escalate, particularly when people were at unfamiliar beaches.

“Our number one priority is to ensure the safety of the beachgoing public, and while our volunteers and support teams will be ready in the event of emergencies, we’d ask the public to make the job of lifesavers and lifeguards as easy as possible by looking out for their own and others’ safety,” chief executive Steven Pearce said in a media release.

The Royal Life Saving Authority says there have been 13 drowning deaths nationally this summer.

The society’s national drowning report shows 291 people died as a result of drowning in Australia from July 2016 to the end of June 2017.