The Queenstown Lakes District Council will host an information session in Wanaka on the new Health and Safety at Work Act after being approached by event organisers confused about their responsibilities under the Act.
The majority of regulations in the 2015 Health and Safety at Work Act, and the Act itself, will come into force on April 4.
Queenstown Lakes District Council Health and Safety Officer Matthew Jenkinson said the presentation from 10am to noon on Thursday at the Lake Wanaka Centre would be part of a workshop on organising events in the district and would aim to clarify how the Act would affect the organisation of events.
‘‘I think a lot of people are worried the introduction of the new Health and Safety at Work Act is a radical change from the status quo.
‘‘I believe it simply builds on existing legislation and in many ways makes health and safety more manageable for the end user.''
The Act was primarily about risk management, something often misunderstood as a barrier to running an event, he said.
‘‘The risk inherit to an event is not what determines if it's allowed to run; the management of those risks does. Therefore, the more capable an organiser is at managing risks, the less they are limited in what activities or events they can run.''
Albert Town Community Association chairman Bruce Hebbard said the association initially feared its annual community party would not go ahead this year because of the Act, but after speaking to the council, plans for the event were being made.
He said it was clear the council would continue to support small organisations to run community events.
Mr Jenkinson said the key to good event safety was to examine aspects of the event which could cause harm to people and consider if reasonable precautions had been implemented.
The council provided event organisers with a template to identify risks and manage them, he said.
- by Margot Taylor
