A special welcome today to you all today.
To my parliamentary colleague Michael Keenan the Member for Stirling in WA; to the Canberra TransACT Capitals, in particular Head Coach Carrie Graf and the Capitals’ Angela Marino - thank you for joining me for the launch of the new mandatory safety standard and safety education campaign for basketball rings and backboards.
This is a very important announcement, and one which I hope will help to keep our children and young adults safe.
You may not be aware that since 1996, three people have died as a result of the structure supporting a basketball ring collapsing on top of them. They were all males, aged from nine to 20 years of age.
Injuries resulting in hospitalisation are equally alarming, especially the tragic incident for Terry Vo, a ten year old boy in Western Australia, who severed both his hands and one foot when the wall holding a basketball ring collapsed on top of him after he performed a slam dunk and held onto the basketball ring.
We are very pleased to see Terry now back at school and his recovery has been magnificent – thanks largely to his own determination and the great work of the medical team in Western Australia.
Terry’s plight sent a warning signal out to us all. The Commonwealth, State and Territory Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading agencies took prompt action. We formulated a national plan to safeguard and educate consumers about correct installation and maintenance of basketball equipment.
As part of the national plan, all new basketball rings and backboards will now be required to carry a safety warning which is mandated under the Trade Practices Act 1974.
The new mandatory standard requires that a warning notice and symbol are displayed at the time of sale of a basketball ring and backboard. In addition, a warning label will be permanently fixed to the backboard: warning that swinging on the ring may cause serious injury or death.
As a parent, Terry’s accident reminds me that we all have a duty of care to our children – as they are dependant on us to provide and maintain a safe environment for them. We estimate that there are over 200 000 basketball rings/backboards installed on home or garage walls in Australia. All these pose a potential threat to the safety of our children.
The safety education campaign that I am launching today intends to raise awareness of the safe use, installation and maintenance of basketball rings and backboards. This guide [hold up Safety Alert] provides important information on these issues.
Our key messages for safe installation of basketball rings and backboards are:
- Do not fix the basketball ring or backboard to brickwork
- Ask a suitably qualified person such as a building professional to assess the safety of existing installations and remove any that are unsafe
- Ideally, fix a basketball ring and backboard to a ‘hot dip’ galvanised steel post (the specifications are shown in the ‘Safety Alert’ brochure)
- and lastly, always follow the manufacturer’s instructions when attaching the ring to the backboard and the backboard to the post.
Like any structure, a safe installation can become unsafe over time from general wear and tear. We recommend that you continue to assess the safety of the installation.
Most importantly, we are asking you to remind children to not swing on the basketball ring. Many basketball rings installed on home exteriors may not be able to support the player’s weight, making hanging or swinging on the ring extremely dangerous. If the installation gives way, fatal and serious injuries can result from falling debris such as bricks and guttering.
I would like to thank a number of agencies today for their support for this campaign.
Firstly, thank you to Basketball Australia who will be distributing the guidelines to their members in 450 basketball stadiums across Australia.
I would also like to make a special mention of the kind support provided by Kidsafe, Archicentre and the Building Commission of Victoria in the development of the safety messages for this campaign.
Lastly, thank you to Canberra TransACT Capitals for helping us to launch this campaign today.