It’s a jingle engrained into the minds of Territorians: fence the pool, shut the gate, teach your kids to swim (it’s great!), supervise, watch your mate, and learn how to resuscitate.
Water safety is a critical skill for our kids to learn, particularly given our weather and our outdoor lifestyle.
It’s a skill my parents wanted me to have from a very young age, and the importance of this skill is something I am instilling in my two children.
My kids, along with thousands of other children who live in and around Palmerston and the rural area, learn to swim at the Palmerston pool.
But next month, the pool will close for 14 months.
That’s to accommodate a $19 million refurbishment, including a massive ‘adventure playground’.
As a mum with two young kids and a long-term advocate for an expansion of the Palmerston pool facilities – I fully support this project.
What concerns me though, is when the pool closes the school swimming lessons, the after-work laps and aqua aerobics will cease, while the Palmerston Sharks Swimming Club will have nowhere to train.
Now, parents could pop the kids in the car and drive to Casuarina, Nightcliff or Coconut Grove to continue private swimming lessons – which is incredibly inconvenient.
Palmerston schools though, don’t even have that option.
In fact, a school in my electorate has scrapped swimming lessons for at least the next six months. I have no doubt many more schools are in this predicament.
The tens of thousands of families who live in Palmerston and the rural area deserve adequate facilities without having to travel to Casuarina, Nightcliff or Coconut Grove.
But there is a pool closer than that. Much closer.
The Howard Springs quarantine facility is sitting empty and has a fantastic 25 metre pool that could be utilised for swimming lessons, the public and the Palmerston Sharks Swimming Club to train. Territorians are paying for it – they should be able to use it.
The Fyles Labor Government clearly has no plan for the future of the facility except to keep pocketing funding from the Federal Government to remain on ‘standby’.
Calls for a pool in rural area are long-running. Throwing open the gates for Territory families to enjoy is a two birds, one stone scenario.
The rural area gets its pool, without Government having to spend a cent – and our kids can continue their critical swimming lessons. If you’d like to see the Howard Springs pool opened to the public, we’d love to hear from you! You can contact my office via email Opposition.Leader@nt.gov.au