Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to make a short contribution about the need for greater awareness about water safety in Australia, particularly the prevention of child drowning. As summer fast approaches and we flock to the beaches and to backyard pools, it is a good time to reopen the public dialogue around water safety to highlight what we can all do to eliminate child drowning both in our own home and among our friends, families and neighbours. First and foremost, we need to recognise that water safety is an issue for all of us everywhere at any time and throughout any season, not just in summer and not just at the beach or in the pool.

The issues of child drowning and general water safety do not receive anywhere near as much attention as they should given the frequency of deaths and injuries related to drowning. To put this debate into context, I refer to a study conducted by Mitchell and others published in 2010 in the journal Injury Prevention. The Mitchell study compared drowning death and hospital morbidity data to gauge the ‘population-risk and person-time risk’ of drowning deaths in Australia. Significantly, with the appropriate adjustments made to the data to accommodate for the amount of time we are exposed to water, the researchers calculated that our risk of drowning was 200 times higher than the risk of a traffic fatality. I will repeat that: the risk of drowning is 200 times higher than the risk of a traffic fatality.

My concern is that we are infinitely more aware of road safety than we are about water safety and I hope to do my part to revive the public dialogue around this issue. I also hope that some of you will leave this place and do what you can to build awareness and to continue to build awareness in your communities about water safety and to preserve the precious lives of our children. As recently as last week we heard media reports about the number of child deaths from drowning. This year, sadly, the number of people drowning in Australia increased for the second year in a row and is higher than at any time in the past seven years.

There were 314 drowning deaths in Australian waterways between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010. This is a four per cent increase on last year’s figures. My concern, which I am sharing with you today, is that unless we do what we can to raise awareness about water safety, this number may again increase instead of decrease.

We know that children under five years of age are the most vulnerable members of our community. On average, over the last decade, a child under five years of age has drowned every week in Australia. For every drowning death, a further three children are admitted to hospital as a result of an immersion incident. It follows that we must have a heightened awareness of the need to protect and promote the safety of our children, especially in and around water.

Child drowning is preventable, particularly for children under five years of age. There are direct actions that we as parents, family members, friends and neighbours can take to ensure that we eliminate the risk of child drowning, and I will touch on these shortly. Within our broader community we can all be more aware of water safety and be more risk-averse. We should speak out if we see an unsafe fence and keep a watchful eye on our kids.

In our schools we need to ensure that our children have timely access to learn-to-swim programs at no cost-burden to our families. We need to ensure that all our children have some basic and safe water exposure and familiarisation. Headlines circulating around the country as recently as last week claimed that one in five of our kids do not know how to swim. This is a particularly alarming statistic and one which we need to give due attention to. I know that in my home state of Tasmania there are water safety programs in our schools. This is something that I hope is mirrored around the country.

Furthermore, whilst promoting awareness about the issue of water safety, we must also have regard to support for children who have suffered hypoxic brain and other related injuries as a result of near drowning, given that injuries related to immersion incidents are almost more common than child drowning. Recently the Water Safety Industry in Hobart launched new ‘keep watch’ material for families, schools and the broader community. These materials focus on the basic steps that we can take as individuals to promote water safety and to prevent child drowning.

The steps are as simple as: supervising your child or children when they are on, in or near water; restricting our children’s access to water by ensuring that we have appropriate fencing around pools or water features; emptying the water out of buckets and baths and providing safe playing areas; understanding the limitations of children around water; and being informed parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, friends and neighbours to ensure the safety of children in any aquatic environment. Finally, we can all ensure that we know resuscitation techniques and possess the basic skills needed to react effectively and successfully in an emergency.

As I have said, measures to promote water safety and to prevent child drowning should come at no cost-burden to families. Sadly, in Australia the death toll from drowning is only part of the picture. As I have stated, hundreds of Australian young children are admitted to hospital following a near drowning. Of those admitted to hospital, some will suffer a hypoxic brain injury due to lack of oxygen that will result in disabilities for life. Many children with hypoxic brain injuries will need services and treatments to support them throughout their lives.

The Samuel Morris Foundation was established in March 2007 and is the only charity in Australia supporting children disabled by near drowning. The foundation’s aim is to prevent future drowning deaths and disabilities by raising awareness of water safety measures, providing equipment for the care and protection of our kids around water and supporting research into the prevention and treatment of hypoxic brain injuries. I am honoured to be a part of the Samuel Morris Foundation. It is reassuring that the Samuel Morris foundation are doing all they can to support families and to raise water safety awareness.

As I have said previously, and as those dedicated to water safety know, there is no magic bullet to drowning prevention and no one thing in isolation will prevent a child from drowning. But we need to follow four key steps—which I illustrated earlier. I will repeat them: supervision of children, correctly installed and maintained fences, water familiarisation and knowing CPR.

I want to reiterate the point I made at the start of my contribution. A lack of awareness of water safety, particularly in relation to our children, is an issue that can bring tragedy to anyone, anywhere and at any time. We can all play a role in promoting better water safety and eliminating child drowning. I urge you all to embark on your own community education campaign, both within your electorate and in your own home state, to promote water safety.

It is as easy as ensuring that your backyard pool, your water feature, the dam on the farm or the bath—wherever there is water and a potential risk of drowning or injury—do not pose a risk. You can take very simple and basic precautions to mitigate against that risk. Keeping this issue in the forefront of our minds is important. Keeping watch and being vigilant is the key to eliminating child drowning and preventing near drowning and hypoxic injuries.