Daily Telegraph Editorial: Councils can and must check swimming pools for safety

A DAILY TELEGRAPH investigation reveals that councils are refusing to use their powers to conduct random inspections of backyard pools, amid growing calls for urgent action after toddler drowning deaths increased by almost a third in 2016.

Child safety should come first. Picture: Toby Zerna

THEY may be frustrating at times and they may also be costly and occasionally bewildering. They may even be excessive in a rare number of cases.

But there is always a point to the increasing level of health and safety regulations throughout Australia. And that point is to save lives — particularly the lives of young children, who cannot be expected to have an adult’s perspective on the need for caution in circumstances that may quickly become dangerous.

It isn’t all that long ago, for example, that household swimming pools were almost completely unregulated except for some building codes. Safety was basically an afterthought, especially when it came to the possibility of non-supervised children gaining access.

A terrible number of deaths occurred before pool protection measures were finally introduced into law. These measures have been refined over time to include steps such as self-closing and self-locking pool gates that should prevent access to the very young.

Those regulations have saved lives, there can be absolutely no doubt. And this priceless benefit has come at the extremely minor cost to adults of merely having to open a gate from time to time.

“Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton now calls on councils and pool owners to ‘do everything within their power to ensure the safety of children’. Councils, she points out, can conduct random inspections and issue fines of up to $5500.”

Regulations only work, however, if they are properly enforced. A Daily Telegraph investigation now reveals that councils are refusing to use their powers to conduct random inspections of backyard pools, amid growing calls for urgent action.

Those calls come as toddler drowning deaths have increased by almost a third to 29 deaths during 2016. Swimming pool incidents accounted for almost half of those tragic losses.

Kidsafe NSW executive officer Christine Erskine correctly describes high noncompliance rates as “deeply concerning” and believes random checks would help make pool owners vigilant. “If you don’t actually check pool gates are still self-closing and self-locking, there’s an opportunity for children to access those pools,” she said. “Children are opportunistic.”

And Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton now calls on councils and pool owners to “do everything within their power to ensure the safety of children”. Councils, she points out, can conduct random inspections and issue fines of up to $5500.

Toddler easily climbs pool fence

You would very much hope it never came to that — but you would hope far more never to read about another toddler death due to an unsupervised or inadequately protected swimming pool.

To avoid the potential for council intervention, pool owners are urged to conduct their own thorough inspections. It’s easy and even if work is required, it won’t be expensive. Most importantly, young lives will be made safer.

More give less take please

THE huge number of Australians who regularly donate to charities are realistic about the need for those charities to use some funds for administrative reasons. The larger a charity is, the more people will be required to run it.

The Starlight Foundation calls for more volunteers. Picture: Supplied

The question is, what percentage of funding may acceptably be drawn from overall donations? How much administration is too much administration? As a Daily Telegraph analysis of charities’ financial reports shows, millions of donor dollars are being sucked into administration every year instead of being directed to the needy in whose name those donations were made.

A little more transparency would be appreciated. And a little less non-core spending.

An unhealthy obsession

IMPROVED physical fitness is a fine and noble aim. For some, though, what begins as a quest for health can turn into a narcissistic body-image obsession.

A creepy level of self-adoration may be one theory explaining the increase in drug use among so-called gym junkies, who are using destructive stimulants as a peculiar enhancement to their exercise ­routines.

“Cocaine heightens mental acuity, stimulates the heart rate and is performance-enhancing and effectively makes people feel like Superman in the gym,” Safework Laboratories forensic toxicologist Andrew Leibie told The Daily Telegraph, after 13 metropolitan gyms, or 85 per cent of those examined, tested positive for cocaine.

Some popular gyms have lately installed needle ­disposal bins in changing rooms for members who inject muscle-building steroids before they work out.

It is all extremely contradictory. On the one hand, gym users spend big money on memberships, ostensibly to become stronger and healthier. On the other hand, gym users are spending even more money on drugs that even in the short term can cause irreversible health damage.

Concentrate on the first option. Delete the second.