Malcolm Turnbull choked back tears as he remembered how his late father rescued him from drowning in a rip off Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
The prime minister used a media conference in his electorate to remember how Bruce Turnbull, who died in a 1982 plane crash, had saved him from being dragged out to sea when he was a boy.
‘I can still see, it’s hard to talk about this without being a bit emotional,’ he told reporters at the Bondi Surf Life Saving Club on Monday.
Malcolm Turnbull (pictured right as a boy with his father Bruce) recalls his dad saving him
‘But I can still see my father swimming through the surf, swimming through, and he got me.
‘And that’s what life savers do. And that’s what we have to do to look after each other here.’
As a boy, a young Malcolm had fallen off his body board near the Ben Butler headland.
‘I was in plenty of trouble,’ the prime minister said.
The prime minister recalled how his father Bruce swam out to the surf to rescue him as a boy
Malcolm Turnbull (pictured as a toddler with his father Bruce) paid tribute to his late dad
Turnbull, who grew up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said the surf was occasionally dangerous.
‘You can get into plenty of trouble here at Bondi,’ he said.
He urged swimmers to make themselves visible to life savers if they encountered trouble swimming between the red and yellow flags.
‘They’re there to keep you safe,’ he said.
‘That’s what we have to do, to look after each other here particularly with kids.’
Australia’s drowning deaths tally stood at 291 between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.
Malcolm Turnbull (left as a teenager) remembered how his father Bruce had stopped him from drowning
Malcolm Turnbull (pictured left in his twenties with his wife Lucy and his father Bruce) saw his dad as a mentor