1988: Fencing of Swimming Pools
May 16, 2025
By AHNZ
On 20 July 1987 the Fencing of Swimming Pools Act gained assent and commencement. It came into force the following year on 1 May and applied to everyone with an existing swimming pool, 1 September for new pools. New Zealanders who wished to keep their property, their pools, would now have to fence them off.
Well, not all New Zealanders actually. The Government exempted itself so that the Department of Education wouldn’t have to budget for it but taxpayers would now have the re-design and retrofit their pools or lose them.
“A bureaucratic monstrosity has been created in the name of having safer swimming-pools.” – Venn Young (Member for Waitotara)
This Labour 4.0 law was the scheme of Labour Member for Western Hutt electorate, John Terris.
Politician, priest and broadcaster seen here (image, left) in his robes later on as Mayor of Lower Hutt. Terris was also known for trying to ban video games and hasten MMP. His Private Member’s Bill forced everyone to pay extra compliance costs by literally making their homes into a mild form of fortress.
This, in a country full of lakes and rivers and fountains and one of the longest coastlines of any country in the world.
I am not supporting the third reading and the passage of the Bill, but it is not because I am opposed to having safer swimming-pools. I am in favour of safer swimming-pools. The Bill is more concerned with the administration of safe swimming-pools than it is about safety itself. The promoter of the Bill, the member for Western Hutt, studiously avoided saying that the Opposition was unable to persuade the Committee of the whole House to require the Bill to bind the Crown. That was the first test of the Government’s commitment to the principle of the Bill, because, as the select committee was told, and the House was informed, if the Bill were to bind the Crown a bill of about $2.5 million or $3 million would be incurred by the Department of Education. The department is not the only owner of private pools on Crown land to which the public does not have automatic access. The question is that if the Bill is indeed about the safety of children at swimming why does the measure not bind the Crown? – Venn Young, Hansard“In 1972, she began her career as a primary school teacher in a Christchurch suburb. She joined the National Party and became politically active. Unlike many of her peers, who were driven by opposition to the Vietnam War, she focused her efforts on local community issues—particularly child safety concerns such as mandatory pool fencing and child seat restraints.” – Jenny Shipley’s early political campaigns, U.S. Embassy in Wellington (1997,) Wiki Leaks
Terris had a drive for compulsion usually associated with the Left but being of the Silent Generation vintage he lacks the Wokesterism. The Hard Left charged him with the crime of Political Incorrectness. What do you reckon they mean? (Hint: image, right.)It was an early example of the coming wave of the Child Protective Movement. The same one that would overreact to Cave Creek, force us to wear bicycle helmets, and dismantle our Adventure Playgrounds. New Zealanders were vulnerable to Big Brother Nanny State promising to ‘save’ the children. Politicians like Terris and Jenny Shipley capitalised on these issues to power up their careers.
The law is a prime example of the fallacious American and Managerial (controlling) idea of trying to solve people problems using control rather than personal responsibility. Wrap people up in cotton wool and bubble wrap to make them safe supposedly being better than empowering people, and kids, to manage their own risk.
I speculate that many families disposed or or built new pools in reaction to the law change rather than what they really wanted.
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Image ref. Mayor John Terris, Facebook (2013)
Image ref. Maori John Terris, Facebook (2013)
Ref. Parliamentary debates. House of Representatives … v.482 yr.1987. Hathi Trust
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