The next ACT government should make mandatory swimming pool fencing retroactive, the head of Royal Lifesaving Australia has said.
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Two people drowned in the ACT in 2014-15, according to the Royal Lifesaving Australia's National Drowning Report launched on Thursday.
The ACT had the lowest rate of drowning in Australia and accounted for less than 1 per cent of drowning deaths nationwide.
However Royal Lifesaving Australia chief executive Justin Scarr said there was much more governments like the ACT's should be doing.
There is no legal requirement in the ACT to install fencing around pools built before mandatory fencing came into effect.
"It's absolutely tragic [to lose a child in a backyard pool] and it's something that could be fixed so easily but governments across the country are reluctant to be retrospective in relation to swimming pool fencing legislation," Mr Scarr said.
"We believe that parents, families and pool owners should rise to the occasion and understand if they've got young children, particularly young grandchildren, they've got to fence the pool irrespective of how old it is. It's the only way combined with supervision, to guarantee lives are going to be saved."
One of the two people who drowned in the ACT in the year to July was 21-month-old River Arama Perry.
The toddler died in a backyard swimming pool at a relative's home in Fisher in January.
Nationally, there were fewer instances of infants drowning, the report showed.
The number of children aged 0-4 who drowned fell 30 per cent against the 10-year-average.
While swimming pools still accounted for more than half of drowning deaths in this age group, there was a 31 per cent decrease on the 10-year average.
"The decrease in drowning in children under the age of five is a very good example of how the community, the government and water safety organisations can come together and bring about a reduction in drowning," Mr Scarr said.
"When you think about it 20 or 30 young Australians are alive today who would have drowned in previous years if not for swimming pool fencing legislation, programs like the Keep Watch program reinforcing the importance of supervision."
But the report also revealed an alarming number of men were drowning.
Four in five people who drowned across Australia last year were men or boys.
"Men as we know take unnecessary risks, they overestimate their ability and in many cases fail to participate in programs like Swim and Survive or our Bronze Medallion in school so they're finding their way into Australian waterways, they're finding their way onto boats, they're drinking lots of alcohol and they lack the skills to stay safe," Mr Scarr said.
About one in six people who drowned had a positive reading for alcohol in their bloodstream at the time. Of those, two in five had a blood-alcohol concentration more than four times the legal limit for driving.
Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley said more state and territory governments needed to introduce mandatory swimming lessons for primary students, like the ACT government did for year 2 students at public schools last year.
"It really just is such an important opportunity to reinforce the message, whether it's to the parents of small children who can't hear the message or understand it but need to be watched every second around water, whether it be young men who've had a few drinks and think it's OK to get in the boat and head out to the middle of the lake or whether it be recently arrived migrants to this country who don't understand that Australian rivers are a lot less friendly than rivers elsewhere in the world," Ms Ley said.
