The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 14

KSWS The Sunday Age 7 February 1993 Pool fences: children die as the Government dithers OW many more lives?" That Is the urgent and insistent question the Victorian Government must confront THfii Sunday Age take other measures to improve pool safety. That approach Is fundamentally flawed 90 per cent of pool drownings happen In family pools or at a friend's home. The threat of lawsuits In these cases would be meaningless as an Incentive to fence, or unlikely to occur. There Is also widespread confusion about whether Mr Maclellan's proposed law would supplement or replace the existing law requiring new pools to be fenced. In the midst of this community disquiet and uncertainty, Mr Maclellan has gone to ground on the matter, and has steadfastly refused to respond to 'Sunday Age' Inquiries about the Government's intentions.

Not only that several Interested parties, including the Child Accident Prevention Foundation, have been unable to get him to discuss the matter. This is inexcusable, even for a busy minister. Meanwhile, the Labor Opposition has now released a discussion paper calling for mandatory pool fencing. Pity this didn't happen during the 10 years It was In government We readily acknowledge that an important issue of principle In all this is whether the Government should Interfere retrospectively to impose a community standard on the 200,000 Victorian homes that have unfenced pools. It would represent an Intrusion.

But similar intrusions have been tolerated before, and we believe that on this issue the Government has a clear responsibility to act "How many more lives?" No more; not a single life that might be saved by this legislative step. We accept that making retrospective pool fencing mandatory is a complicated initiative, and one which has a cost, but it Is a step that this community should must take to protect its most precious resource. Children. about toddler deaths In backyard swimming pools. Today, The Sunday Age' returns to the question.

We have aired it several times this summer and we make no apology (or that. The Issue ot requiring fences around existing backyard pools and spas Is that Important With still more infant deaths since we took up the matter in December, the Issue has assumed even greater urgency. This state now lags behind Queensland In legislation requiring comprehensive pool fencing, and this newspaper believes the Victorian Government has a clear responsibility to act We believe it should be mandatory that all backyard pools and spas be fenced. This emotional Issue assumes a special poignancy this week. Parents whose child died in a backyard pool accident have put aside their grief to speak out through our columns.

Who better than they know what effect pool fences would have in protecting innocent young lives? The anguish of these parents cries out for a sympathetic response and action by the Government to prevent further deaths. Their stories are moving and instructive; their support for pool fences to protect children Is compelling. Is the fencing of pools such a drastic step? After all, parents and the community readily adopt protective measures in other situations child restraints In cars, helmets for bike riders, non-flammable children's nlghtwear, and sun-screen protection. Drowning is one of the primary causes of death among children under the age of three In this country, many in backyard swimming pools. Among children aged one to five, in particular, drowning is the leading cause of death in Australia.

In Victoria, an average of about 10 toddlers drown each year In backyard pools, and up to 50 nationwide. In fact, more than 1000 young Australian lives have been lost by such drownings since backyard pools became popular In the 1960s. Of those children who survive pool accidents, some suffer brain damage. Half of the deaths and Injuries involve babies less than one year old. To an unsupervised and unsuspecting infant, an unfenced pool is a death-trap.

It is a sad indictment of our society that the deaths have continued, and a significant contributing factor is a glaring imperfection in our law. While Victorian law requires all new swimming pools be fenced at the time of construction, the weakness in the statute is that pools built before the law came Into effect, in August 1988, are not required to be fenced. It is disturbing that the minister responsible, Planning Minister, Mr Rob Maclellan, seems to be In a dither about the Government's response to calls for mandatory retrospective pool fencing. In December Mr Maclellan seemed to leave open the possibility that Government would at some point require compulsory retrospective fencing, but for the most part he has persisted with his preference for legislation that encourages, but does not require, fencing. Mr Maclellan's proposal is to provide indemnity from legal action in the event of a drowning to home-owners who fence their pools or tjmstymilk POOL FENCE FKOBLBM Letters To The Editor Building tennis centre was We are well positioned demographl-cally to lead the world to high-quality, low-consumption lifestyles, exporting renewable energy technology, safe and effective fertility control methods, and sustainable regenerative farming techniques, not to mention food.

But until we learn how to redefine Australia to Include our to reject the blind insanity Implicit in the frantic scramble for growth, we remain part of the problem, not solution. Rory F(tzroy CAIN: Stadium does not outweigh money blunders from Charles Eller I LOOK forward to further articles by Mr Cain. May I suggest a few titles: 'How I lost the State Bank', 'How I lost the Phillip Island Grand Prix', and 'How I bankrupted Victoria'. The man is presumptuous in the extreme to think that the building of the tennis stadium overshadows the financial mismanagement of his government I have yet to hear a word of apology from any Labor politician for the parlous state In which Victoria finds It-, self. Perhaps Mr Cain could address more important matters before any more self-congratulatory articles.

ChartM EHer, Northcote DEBT: Both parties put electoral popularity first from Richard S. Allen IN HIS admirable article in The Sunday Age' (171) headed 'Correcting our imbalance of payments', Malcolm Fraser said: "Australia's Increasing Indebtedness is the single most important issue in front of Australia." Most thinking Australians would agree with this view and recognise that we are in the middle of a worsening economic crisis, the gravity of which should cause nationwide alarm and a demand for immediate and drastic action. The policies put forward by the How can you decide Spectrum staff lack imagination, when you have no earthly idea of the lines of Inquiry being followed? The detectives know what they are looking for you don't The Spectrum Inquiry Is a serious police Investigation, not a game of Cluedo, to be trivialised by amateurs. Would The Sunday Age' appoint an editor who'd never worked in a newsroom? Or a chef who'd never been trained to cook? So how without any Investigative experience, training or knowledge of the Spectrum Investigation can a week's amateur detective work make you such experts in police investigations? We are pleased you think it "imaginative" to consult real estate agents because we did this over two years ago, after the kidnapping of Nicola Lynas. Based on a Real Estate Board list of agents, we sent circulars to 65, while the Information was still fresh.

Spectrum reviewed the response. We have aerial photographs, taken with our air wing. But could you explain how detectives can check houses' Interiors or the number of steps outside from an aerial photograph? Your journalist was told this. We went to Mr Watts' studios looking for photographs of Karmein Chan's burial site at Edgar's Creek, Thomastown. Using their imagination, the taskforce appealed through the media for anyone with old photos of the area near the SEC sub-station at Thomastown.

We checked with the army, the SEC, Water Board, Federal Airports Corporation, VicRoads, quarries, Melways, the City of Whittlesea, and every aerial photo mapping and survey company in the Yellow Pages. Mr Watts did not have what we wanted, but we bought photos for $400 elsewhere. Budget was not an object How can you say the investigation has achieved nothing, when we have checked 30,000 houses, eliminated thousands of suspects, charged 55 people, seen changes in pornography legislation, and thrown a net over Melbourne which is gradually being hauled in. While the studio recreation of the bedroom is commendable, we decided against It 18 months ago. The description may not be accurate, and you may be telling Victorians to look for a bedroom which does not exist.

That is one of the reasons for our reluctance to release the drawing we don't want the public to get tunnel vision and be sent off on wild goose chases, or to stay silent because the person they sulting them and patronising them, diverting their attention with undeserved criticism, and breathing down their necks in an effort to get "new please support them. They deserve It Noil Com tie, Melbourne FLAG: Why change design that is so widely known? from Ronald W. Russell THE flag design and letter by Mr Hibberd (The Sunday Age', 311) shows a dismal ignorance of history and flags. The Union is not the flag of the British Crown. It is the flag of the United Kingdom and will never change regardless of what happens to the monarchy.

To Australians, it represents our English, Scottish and Irish (and Welsh) roots by its three crosses: St George, St Andrew and St Patrick. Because the Union flag Is the most Instantly recognised flag throughout the world (along with the Stars and Stripes) the Australian national flag is also very widely known, much more so than the flags of many other nations with populations far In excess of ours. Ronald W. Ruuafl, Safety Beach POPULATION: The problem Is to create new roles from S. M.

Newman, Victorian president Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population FIILLIP P. Lorenz's concern about an ageing Australian population (Letters, 311) is based on erroneous Interpretation of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. Dr Cristobel Young, of the department of demography, Australian Na-tional University, using ABS projections, shows quite clearly that we in Australia are looking in the near future at a growth in the workforce of well over two million people between the ages of IS and 64 over the years 1991 to 2011. In this post-industrial growth era, increased productivity invariably correlates with decreased need for manpower, and all manual labor and craft Is steadily being automated. Except in parts of the Third World where human life is still cheaper, more expendable and more numerous than microchips, we are already experiencing massive redundancy of the formerly desirable classic "man suspect has a bedroom which looks different Our sketch was based on a fleeting glimpse.

As we told the media, we are asking people to add up all the information released, rather than relying on one aspect and not to exclude someone If one thing isn't quite right It is disappointing that 'The Sunday Age' did not print all the information we specified as important Other reasons for withholding the description were the need to ensure its veracity with victims whose recollections were vague; the danger of telegraphing what we knew to I the offender; the danger of the description not being accurate; confidence we could find the premises on our own, and the trauma for victims. As your paper was told, budget had nothing -to do with interviewing the American offender. He wouldn't talk to us. Detective Inspector Claude Minisinl Is working with the FBI to study the behavior of serial offenders and is still trying to interview this man. This has been the best resourced taskforce ever run.

No requests have been refused and it Is mischievous to suggest otherwise. I only wish we could offer the same service to all other families of victims of violent crime, who have been equally traumatised. 'The Sunday Age' keeps raising the Issue of Karmein Chan's photograph, without providing our explanations: that it was the one given to us by Mrs Chan, we didn't believe anyone would have seen Karmein, and she did not have short hair when taken. 'The Sunday Age' created a "red herring" which wasted weeks of chasing false sightings around Victoria. Even other detectives find it hard to comprehend the depth and thoroughness of the Inquiry, which has seen the unprecedented step of writing to doctors, checking ships In port distributing thousands of posters, and other avenues of inquiry we don't wish to divulge.

I wonder at the public interest of printing sensitive forensic information to help the next offender commit the perfect crime. Spectrum taskforce has a difficult job to do, which places demands on their family and social lives. The public support has been tremendous, and all members of the taskforce are absolutely determined to succeed. They feel terribly the pressure of not letting the public down. Instead of in (muscle) power" associated with youthfulness in hunter-gatherer, agricultural and Industrial societies.

Old women and old men will be quite capable of providing most of the labor to increasingly high-tech societies. The problem right now and for the future is what new roles can high-tech society provide for the average (not the outstanding) young and middle-aged person? Mr Lorenz's anxiety about our low birthrate Is also mistaken. Australia's growth rate of 1.4 per cent is one of the highest In OECD countries. Our population is growing by a quarter of a million every year. A bit more than half comes from natural increase and the rest from immigration.

It took little more than 200 years for our population to reach today's level, but at the current rate of growth, Australia's population will double again in 50 years. People who have thought this through are very concerned about the trend in exponential population here and overseas. For more Information, write to Australians for an Ecologically Sustainable Population, POBox 1875, Canberra 2601 or phone (03) 783-5047. s. M.

Newman, FranKston POPULATION: We must sacrifice our affluence from Rory Roper FIILLIP P. Lorenz's concern about an ageing Australian population (Letters, 311) is based on erroneous interpretation of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. By 2031 the world population will be 12 billion and growing by two billion per decade, both double today's figures. This is the real headlong rush to disaster and is already the root cause of much of the suffering in the world. "Populate or perish" was born In the era of trench warfare.

The Gulf War should teach us that times have changed and a large population is no defence against invasion. In developed countries such as Australia, the lower birthrates have been translated into much greater impacts due to rising affluence. In this sense we are already very overpopulated and growing way too fast. We can only afford more population if we give up a lot of affluence, or we will soon be living in a ruined country. a barbaric act from Or David Rosner Y)UR article on John Cain and the Tennis Centre at Flinders Park has missed the point The Tennis Centre is an abomination that has destroyed a part of Melbourne's heritage inner city parkland.

To compare John Cain to his predecessors who prevented development In the surrounds of the city and had the foresight to establish parklands, such as the Botanical Gardens, is outrageous. Premier Cain reversed over ISO years of planning to take away this -precious asset instead of further adding to our public parkland. As the song says, he "pulled down paradise to put up a parking How many of our buildings will still stand in 100 years? The Southern Stand at the MCG was hailed as a great achievement only to become obsolete in 40 years. Do we expect the Tennis Centre to do any better, even assuming tennis Is still as popular in 100 years? It could have been sited in any number of other places with better access and parking, avoiding the complete chaos when both it and the MCG are in use. I am sure he will be remembered and recognised as "Cain the Barbarian" for his treacherous destruction of our inheritance.

David Rosnar East Kew TENNIS: Cabinet handed park to a wealthy sport from P. R. McNamara. Kooyong treasurer, 1983-1988 WOULD his Cabinet let John Cain (311) do it all again? In 1985 they were prepared to "do everything possible (to retain) the most lucrative sport the state could When the ex-premier labels as "over the top" an early Civil Civic report putting the cost at $120 million, he ignores the fact the National Tennis Centre needed a $110 million loan from the State Bank at concessional interest rates. So far the NTC has run up debts, losses and subsidies of $M0 million, with another $120 million earmarked for government subsidies in the next 10 years.

An outlay of $12 million at Kooyong would have ensured the Australian Open remained in Melbourne as an international event with most of the benefits claimed for the Open at Flinders Park, plus profits for grassroots tennis in Australia. However, 4500 Kooyong members were unwilling to hand over their land and stadium to a professional promoter like Tennis Australia. Would Cabinet again give parkland worth $37 million to the most lucrative sport In Australia and hand $100 million in assets over to a professional promoter? Would it pledge $144 million of public funds as subsidies to cover the next 12 years' losses? It was all so "unrealistic" In 1985 and Is still so, even at today's interest rates. Pttar R. McNamara, Balwyn POPULATION: The cost of expansion is prohibitive from Vat Garth FIILLIP Lorenz fears that a static population will result In too many aged persons relative to those of working age.

To avert this "tragedy" he advocates further -increasing our population. Ad infinitum, Mr Lorenz? i Even the most ardent advocates of growth admit that our numbers must eventually stabilise. When this happens, the ageing "problem" will occur whatever the population size at. the time. In fact the populations of all developed countries have been ageing for decades.

At present 11 per cent of our population is over 65, while 11.3 per cent (actually over 20 per cent) of our workforce is unemployed and will remain so in the foreseeable future. now have a significant number of Australians who will be welfare recipients for their entire lives. The prohibitive social and economic costs of this alone far out-weigh the ageing If we continue to expand, even at our present rate, by the year 2031 we will need to have built the equivalent of another Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra. Does anyone seriously think we can afford this? ValOarui, Preston MEDICARE: Keating's TV trick is sickening from Brendan Nelson, vice-president, Australian Medical Association I AM moved to write this letter, not for the AMA's 20,000 members, but for those Australian patients whom we have the privilege to serve. The Government's recently launched $4 million campaign to extol the virtues of Medicare to the Australian community is an offence to the sensibilities of thousands of Australians and their families who have had the misfortune to find themselves in need of "non-urgent" care through our public hospital system.

When patients are dying waiting (or heart surgery, when they can wait up to five months to have their brain tumors removed, three years to have their sinuses drained and, worse still, be denied an admission to a public hospital when they have had a stroke because of "bed It was sickening to see the Prime Minister using Innocent children to perpetrate a cheap political trick on the Australian community. Money that could create 160 full-time Jobs for a year, fund an Immunisation program for meningitis, restore medical research funding to its necessary levels, initiate major Aboriginal health activities and finance some 280 cardiac bypass operations Is being used to buy the amnesia of the Australian public. Images of parents grateful for the life of a premature baby hide the rationing of beds. Including those In intensive care units, and queuing which, In some instances, has found patients with AIDS waiting days to be transferred from the accident and emergency department to a ward. Whatever one's political views, we desperately need a bipartisan approach to health, and leadership that, preserves, rather than cheapens hu present Government and the Coalition fail completely to come to grips with the situation.

It could not be that they do not perceive the problem, since it is easy to forecast within a few billion dollars, what the overseas debt will be in one, two or three years (some experts say Australia's debt, now standing at $160 billion, could be as high as $400 billion by the end of the century). This head-in-the-sand approach must therefore stem from fear of losing the election. In that the corrective action needed will of necessity incur hardships and restrictions (perhaps of war-time severity) and thereby unpopularity. To take comfort from a small reduction in a monthly adverse balance of payments figure Is akin to a surgeon saying to the next-of-kin: "The operation was successful instead of having to amputate the second leg we only had to chop off the foot above the ankle." Richard S. Alton, Toorak SPECTRUM: Criticism has devastated police morale from NeM Comne.

chief commissioner, Victoria Police THE Spectrum taskforce is one of the most professional, dedicated and innovative taskforces assembled in the world. It has been applauded by the Interstate and International experts. It did not deserve the criticism In the article and editorial of last week's 'Sunday Age', which devastated morale. We know journalists need news. But you also have an obligation to be fair and accurate and not obsessed with finding a "bungle" under every rock.

VtaPoiyu How did you stay cool this week? rtsrfS VXM Michael Thurston, 45, telecom technician, Malvern I found the best way was to visit ail my friends with air-conditioners. Work wasn't too bad, fortunately, my depot Is air-conditioned so we stayed Inside most of the day. Sherlf Maahaal, 25, student, Elsternwlck I went to the beach for a while and generally tried to keep out of the sun. I started going for a walk with my dog on the 42-degree day and It waskist too hot. I went home, had a cold shower and lay in front of the fan for the rest of the day.

Allan Haowlart, 70, retired, Glen Wavertey On the two hottest days I was out on the bay sailing, so I was too busy worrying about my yacht to think about the heat. It was a bit cooler on the bay, anyway. I spent most of the time in the sun, too, but I didn't really think It was all that hot. Margaret Lloyd, 29, tage manager, Fltzroy I didn't keep cool at all, I sweltered. I got some relief at the local pod.

but even then the heat was almost Intolerable. Work wasn't much better, either. The aw-ccridruoning unit couldn't keep up with the rising temperature so It I was almost as hot Inside as ft was out. i Dlanne Saundera, 21, tudent, Clifton Hill I was working In an un-eir-conditioned environment so there was no way of keeping cool. When I got home I made sure I stayed inside, out of the sun.

I ventured out to water the garden at twilight and made sure I got a good helping of water on myself as well as the plants. Greg Champion, 38, Coodabeen champion, Burwood The local pool. I'm definitely a pool man. As a matter of fact, I mastered the "hoon" dives this week. A young bloke at the Harold Holt pool showed me all the moves from the three-metre springboard.

I know them an now, the "lay "floater" and "black And I even went off the O-metre tower. The Sunday Age THESVNDAY Wif iwd Md pcNtWd I Grrfno Jn Ttvior at Sprnm Vim MHIttunw Vm fof id mr A Co Liimtf V.N. 0O4 2: 101. a Spnmr Sum. MritoWK.

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