From: AAP May 06, 20115:14PM IT'S taken almost a year but refugee Riz Wakil has finally locked in a date to go surfing with Tony Abbott.
The opposition leader's offer of breakfast and a surfing lesson attracted the highest bids when it was auctioned off at last year's annual press gallery ball in Canberra.
At $16,100, it easily beat lawn bowls with Kevin Rudd ($12,600) and dinner with then-deputy prime minister Julia Gillard, which went for a neat $10,000.
The winning funds were raised by lobby group GetUp, which nominated former Afghan refugee Mr Wakil as the lucky recipient.
He said he'd use the one-on-one meeting to urge the coalition to adopt a more humane approach to asylum seekers, having spent nine months in detention in 1999.
But getting a busy Mr Abbott to come good on the deal proved to be quite the challenge, particularly when the federal election was called shortly afterwards. For a while, Mr Abbott apparently refused to take GetUp's calls.
But now, 323 days later, the opposition leader is set to meet Mr Wakil at Sydney's northern beaches tomorrow morning (AEST).
He'll give Mr Wakil a personal surfing lesson, followed by brunch at a nearby cafe.
Mr Wakil, who owns a printing business in Sydney's west, is planning to talk to media about how the date goes after that.
