Foss Craig: Building (Pools) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoss Craig: Building (Pools) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6773. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister for Small Business)on behalf of theMinister for Building and Housing: I move That the Building (Pools) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Local Government and Environment Committee to consider the bill. The Fencing of Swimming Pools Bill was introduced as a member’s bill in 1986 in the wake of the report on the fencing of private swimming pools by the Local Bills Committee in 1983. The report highlighted that an average of 10 children under 5 were drowning in private pools every year. In fact this was the leading cause of accidental death for young children and second only to traffic accidents at the time. The report found that local authorities with pool fencing bylaws had far fewer drownings than districts that had no such bylaws. The committee’s conclusions ring as true today as they did 30 years ago: “(a) [Swimming pools] are a significant childhood water hazard; (b) Pool fencing is the most effective means of preventing drownings of pre-school children in private swimming pools; (c) It is totally impossible for parents to supervise their children every minute of the day;”.Since the Act was first enacted it has been successful in reducing the number of fatalities of children under 5 years old in residential swimming pools from about 10 per year to three per year. However the Act is cumbersome for pool owners and councils. There is a lack of consistency in the way in which various councils across the country administer the Act and the level of compliance is often mixed. In short the Act has been a source of frustration for many councils and pool owners.The Government agreed to go to the public to seek their views on how best to strike the right balance when it came to child safety and reducing the compliance costs for pool owners and councils. To that end a consultation document was released Making pool safety easier: Proposed changes to the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987 containing proposals to reduce compliance costs while maintaining child safety. There were 392 submissions received from pool owners the pool industry safety groups councils professionals involved in pool safety and others. The proposals received strong support with almost all the proposals supported by over 80 percent of submitters. At this stage I would like to acknowledge and thank all those organisations and people who took the time and energy to submit on the proposals. It is really encouraging to see that so many people care so much about the safety of our young New Zealanders in and around swimming pools. The input provided by these submitters has been instrumental in getting the current bill in front of the House.This bill introduces a more consistent and practical approach to protecting young children from drowning in residential swimming pools and will replace the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act 1987 with a new subpart in the Building Act 2004 dedicated to pool safety requirements. A pragmatic decision was made to incorporate the requirements in the Building Act 2004 because all the requirements relating to making pools safe are in fact contained in the building code a code that has its genesis in the Building Act.Although the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act has been effective in preventing drownings of young children in swimming pools the current law is excessively prescriptive with inconsistent and cumbersome requirements that contribute little to young children’s safety. Specific issues include: some councils granting fencing exemptions for spa pools while some others do not; some councils inspect pools every 3 years while other councils have no regular inspections at all; garden pools and stormwater retention ponds have sometimes been interpreted as requiring fencing under the Act; and conflicting requirements for pool barriers as set out in the Act as well as the building code—under the Act the only type of barrier allowed is a fence. Councils have no enforcement powers other than to take costly and ineffectual prosecutions for breaches of requirements under the Act. Any exemptions to the fencing requirements must be granted by elected councillors which is both costly and inefficient and pool owners cannot appeal these decisions.This bill will reduce the bureaucracy and compliance costs of the current regime while also saving more lives by ensuring more consistent compliance across the country. Spa pool owners will benefit significantly from the proposed new legislation. Currently the rules around restricting access to spa pools and hot tubs are inconsistent and confused. Some councils will grant fencing exemptions for spa pools that have child-resistant covers while other councils will insist on having a spa pool fenced. Few spa pools are fenced in practice yet the rate of drowning is very low because spa pools generally come with a safety cover. Under this bill spa pools and hot tubs with child-resistant covers will not have to be separately fenced any more. This is going to save owners of these kinds of pools a significant amount of money and hassle and importantly it is not expected to affect the risk of young children drowning.Another important change in the bill is that councils will be required to inspect pools 5-yearly. Currently there are no rules around the frequency of inspections. Some councils inspect 3-yearly where other councils do not inspect pools at all. The 5-yearly inspections will mean that pool owners across the country will be subject to the same inspection regime. More important this inspection regime will ensure that pool barriers of all swimming pools across New Zealand will continue to comply with pool safety requirements and thus help save the lives of young Kiwi children.There are a number of other changes designed to reduce compliance costs while making pool safety legislation more workable. Retailers and manufacturers will be required to inform buyers of their pools of their legal obligation to ensure that young children’s access is restricted. Pool safety requirements will not apply to water hazards such as garden ponds and stormwater retention ponds associated with homes. This change ensures that pool safety rules will be focused on residential swimming pools which pose the greatest risk to young children. This change will end the frustration and expense for owners of these types of water hazards. Under the bill any pool barrier will be permitted that meets the performance base standards of the building code. This means that owners of pools will no longer be restricted to fences as the only means to restrict access.Finally notices to fix and infringement notices will be the preferred tools for gaining compliance with court prosecutions following only in the case of serious breaches of the requirements of the Act. These changes are expected to improve pool safety and are estimated to result in six fewer drownings per decade. These changes will also result in reducing compliance costs by an estimated $17 million. This bill will improve child safety around residential swimming pools. It will reduce compliance costs for pool owners. It will result in clearer more consistent flexible and workable pool safety rules. I commend this bill to the House.