In the wake of the tragedy on Whakaari/White Island, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is reviewing the health and safety regulations for Adventure Activities. The proposal has been publicly notified, and is open for submissions until 5pm on 5 November 2021.
While it is clear that recreational adventure activities fall entirely outside of the scope of this review, FMC is concerned that some of the proposals may have unanticipated side effects that are not the intended focus of these proposed changes, to the detriment of all outdoor recreation. FMC has thus written a submission on the proposed changes. We are encouraging all interested recreational groups to do the same.
The key points of our submission are the following:
- Requiring landowners / managers to take responsibility for risk management of adventure activities on their land could lead to denial of access for both adventure activities and personal / club recreation.
- The proposal documentation contains inconsistent statistics and inaccurate statements as to the adventure activities natural hazard fatality rate over time. There has in fact been a significant reduction in such fatalities since the regulations were introduced, and this would be seen to be an even more dramatic decrease if expressed as a rate per 100,000 participants.
- The unsubstantiated claim that a landowner is a PCBU just by virtue of providing access for adventure activities is contrary to the current guidance provided by Worksafe.
Tourists on Whakaari/White Island, April 2019. Photo by Kimberley Collins, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
