WorkSafe steps up checks on adventure tourism post-Whakaari

Friday, 18 December 2020

WorkSafe is facing an independent review of its oversight of White island Tours in the years leading up to the eruption which resulted in 22 deaths. Americans Matt and Lauren Urey were among the 25 survivors.

WorkSafe hurriedly ramped up monitoring of adventure activities following last year’s Whakaari White Island disaster, but safety experts say there is still room for improvement.

The 22 Whakaari fatalities and severe injuries to survivors sparked a review of the agency’s handling of adventure activities involving natural hazards, and a further independent review will now look at its oversight of tours to the active volcano.

WorkSafe confirmed that following the eruption in December 2019, it had carried out 177 assessments of adventure activities, compared with 225 over the previous six years.

The natural hazards review conducted by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said safety standards in the adventure tourism sector had improved generally, but it identified problems with risk assessment of natural hazards, auditing processes and WorkSafe’s approach to enforcement.

An MBIE review of 665 registered adventure activities found 146 carried a medium to high risk and 446 a low to medium risk from natural hazards such as water surges, extreme weather, flooding and rockfalls.

A tightening of adventure activity regulations could make it compulsory to report more non-fatal and non-injury incidents to WorkSafe. An MBIE review of natural hazards said “sentinel” events could include avalanches where people were caught or buried but not killed or seriously injured.

* Auditing of adventure activities could be in for a shakeup - but some label it 'butt-covering'

* Adventure tourism regs under review again, what about WorkSafe's role?

A public commemoration ceremony has been held, with a minute of silence observed at 2.11pm in Whakatane.

Operators offering certain commercial activities that deliberately put participants at serious risk must be on the adventure activities register, and undergo regular safety audits.

Since tougher regulations were introduced in 2014, WorkSafe said it had issued 46 enforcement notices, a dozen of them in the last 12 months.

Most assessments of operators were “proactive” and 16 resulted from complaints or concerns raised by outside parties.

Adventure Mark is one of just two companies certified to audit adventure activities and director Hemi Morete said WorkSafe needed to be much tougher on those who stepped out of line.

Tourism Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said it was an unusual decision to focus on natural hazards and leave a full review of adventure activity regulations until 2023, nine years after tighter regulations were introduced.

He gave the example of an operator who was reported for failing to be on the adventure activities register, and WorkSafe’s response was to issue an improvement notice, rather than fine the offender.

“They were told to get an audit and fix their systems and were not punished in any way.

“Our operator had paid for audits for six years; these guys had gone under the radar and when they got caught, effectively nothing happened.”

Horse trekking is not currently covered by the adventure activity regulations but a review could extend the types of activities requiring stricter safety audits.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said New Zealand’s regulations made our adventure tourism the safest in the world, and he understood a recent internal review by WorkSafe had identified only six unregistered operators whose activities might require them to be on the register.

“We’re satisfied with the way the regime has been working, we just believe that WorkSafe has taken its eye off the ball in terms of its oversight, and it has left it to the auditors and the industry to get on with it.”

Roberts said WorkSafe had relied heavily on organisations such as TIA to develop safety guidelines for adventure activities, but funding to help pay for that had ended in 2018.

“Ourselves and others have been left carrying the can in some respects, carrying out functions that you could argue should have been done by WorkSafe.”

Roberts said the decision to have David Laurenson QC undertake an independent review of WorkSafe’s handling of the Whakaari White Island tours was a good one, especially in light of the decision to prosecute two other Government agencies GNS Science and the National Emergency Management Agency (Civil Defence) over health and safety breaches.

The MBIE review said the whole regulatory regime would be put under significant pressure if one of the two certifiers collapsed, and having Worksafe take over that function was an option.

Victoria University health and safety lecturer Andy White has worked in the adventure tourism sector, and he said it would be preferable to keep auditors at arms length from the people they were paid to assess by having WorkSafe contract out the safety checks.

“When you’ve got something to lose, you will pay the people who’re going to get you across the line.”

He said it was also important to keep an eye on operators between three yearly audits because staff changes could have a big impact on how businesses were run, and cut backs resulting from Covid-19 could result in the loss of highly skilled workers.

Backpacker Youth and Adventure Tourism Association spokeswoman Debbie Guptill said most operators exceeded health and safety standards, and would be happy to see unannounced spot checks.

There were concerns that smaller businesses may end up closing down if regulatory costs soared.

“I’m hoping they are not moving the goal posts too far … it’s about having consistency and not making it unachievable.”