Qantas in surf safety video hold pattern

17.05.2010

AS tourism industry members,
politicians and community members
gathered at Currumbin Surf Life
Saving Club for a vital surf safety
initiative yesterday, the question on
everyone's lips was 'Where the bloody
hell are you... Qantas?'
The get-together was organised to
unveil the surf safety video that budget
airline Virgin Blue will play to
passengers on all its domestic flights
within Australia from next month and
to reinforce the fact it was already
displaying the 'swim between the flags'
message on its television screens.
"We have 15 flights coming into the
Gold Coast today and they will all be
screening the surf safety message,"
said Virgin Blue logistics manager
Don McKillop.
"It is great to be the first carrier
to do this."
The initiative got off the ground
following a Bulletin campaign which
highlighted the need for the surf safety
message to be better delivered to visitors
and multi-cultural groups following
three drownings earlier this year.
Tourism Minister Peter Lawlor made
it clear he was not pleased to only be
announcing that one airline had
agreed to run the video and expressed
disappointment that national carrier
Qantas - and its budget subsidiary
Jetstar, which services the Gold Coast -
were not standing alongside with
Virgin Blue.
"It is important we get another
carrier to follow Virgin," he said.
Qantas's failure to run the film was
also noted by tourism and community
figures at last month's second Surf
Safety Summit on the Coast.
The company did not respond to
questions about the issue yesterday -
despite repeated attempts.
Multicultural Affairs Minister
Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday
reinforced the ongoing commitment to
the surf safety improvements and to
show off new brochures designed to
target non-English speaking groups.
Caps, T-shirts and brochures containing
surf safety messages have been
translated into 18 languages for
distribution in the community by the
end of the month, she said.