The 2022 Senior Australian of the Year is calling for first-aid training to be made a mandatory requirement to get your driver’s licence.

Val Dempsey has been a St John Ambulance volunteer for more than 50 years.

About 30 years ago, her daughter, who was 17 at the time, was involved in a crash where someone tragically lost their life and none of the people who tried to help had first aid training.

The tragedy inspired Ms Dempsey to campaign for young people to be taught the basics of first aid.

“Primarily let’s look at our kids, let’s look at our kids going through high school – keen and eager to get their drivers licences – why don’t we equip them with that wonderful skill of learning to save a life?,” she told Neil Michell.

“There certainly is opportunity and precedent set in Europe, in about 11 countries that I’ve found so far.”

She says four hours of first aid training, backed up with some online learning, would help ordinary Australians to save the lives of others in emergency situations.

Press PLAY below to hear more about Val Dempsey’s idea