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WorkSafe faces an independent review of its oversight of White Island Tours in the years leading up to the eruption that resulted in 22 deaths. Americans Matt and Lauren Urey were among the 25 survivors.
WorkSafe hastily stepped up monitoring of adventure activities after last year’s Whakaari White Island disaster, but safety experts say there is still room for improvement.
The 22 Whakaari deaths and the serious injuries to the survivors prompted a review of the agency’s handling of adventure activities involving natural hazards, and a further independent review will now look at its supervision of tours of the active volcano.
WorkSafe confirmed that after the eruption in December 2019, it had conducted 177 adventure activity assessments, compared to 225 in the previous six years.
The natural hazards review conducted by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said that safety standards in the adventure tourism sector had improved overall, but identified problems with the risk assessment of natural hazards, processes audit and WorkSafe approach to enforcement.
READ MORE:
* Government orders WorkSafe review of Whakaari White Island tours
* Auditing of adventure activities could be a change, but some label it as ‘cover your butt’
* Adventure travel rules under review again, what about the role of WorkSafe?
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An MBIE review of 665 recorded adventure activities found that 146 carried a medium to high risk and 446 a low to medium risk from natural hazards such as storm surge, extreme weather, flooding and rock falls.
Operators offering certain business activities that deliberately put participants at serious risk must be on the adventure activity log and undergo regular security audits.
Since stricter regulations were introduced in 2014, WorkSafe said it had issued 46 compliance notices, a dozen of them in the past 12 months.
The majority of operator evaluations were “proactive” and 16 were the result of complaints or concerns raised by third parties.
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A tightening of adventure activity regulations could force more non-fatal and injury-free incidents to be reported to WorkSafe. An MBIE review of natural hazards said “sentinel” events could include avalanches where people were trapped or buried, but did not die or were seriously injured.
Adventure Mark is one of two companies certified to audit adventure activities and Director Hemi Morete said that WorkSafe had to be much stricter with those who stepped out of line.
He gave the example of an operator who was reported for not being on the Adventure Activity Log, and WorkSafe’s response was to issue an upgrade notice, rather than fine the violator.
“They were told to audit and fix their systems and they were not punished in any way.
“Our operator had paid for the audits for six years; these guys had gone unnoticed and when they got caught, nothing happened.
Christel Yardley / Stuff
A public commemoration ceremony has been held, with a minute of silence observed at 2.11pm in Whakatane.
Aotearoa Tourism Industry Executive Director Chris Roberts said New Zealand regulations make our adventure travel the safest in the world, understanding that a recent internal WorkSafe review had identified only six unregistered operators whose activities may require to be on the record.
“We are satisfied with the way the regime has been working, we just think that WorkSafe has taken its eye off the ball in terms of its oversight and left the auditors and industry to move forward.”
Roberts said WorkSafe had relied heavily on organizations like TIA to develop safety guidelines for adventure activities, but funds to help pay for that ended in 2018.
“We ourselves and others have been left with the can in some respects, performing functions that you could argue that WorkSafe should have performed.”
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Tourism Aotearoa CEO 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 stricter regulations were introduced.
Roberts said the decision to have David Laurenson QC conduct 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 Handling Agency. of Emergencies (Civil Defense) for safety and health infractions.
The MBIE review said the entire regulatory regime would come under significant pressure if one of the two certifiers collapsed, and for Worksafe to take over that role was an option.
University of Victoria Health and Safety Professor Andy White has worked in the adventure travel industry, and said it would be preferable to keep auditors away from the people they were paid to evaluate by making WorkSafe will contract security controls.
“When you have something to lose, you will pay the people who will help you cross the line.”
Stephen heard
Horseback riding is not currently covered by adventure activity regulations, but a review could expand the types of activities that require stricter safety audits.
He said it was also important to keep an eye on operators between three annual audits because personnel changes could have a big impact on the way companies are run, and the resulting cuts from Covid-19 could result in the loss of highly skilled workers. .
Young Backpackers and Adventure Tourism Association spokeswoman Debbie Guptill said most operators exceeded health and safety standards, and would be happy to see random checks without warning.
There were concerns that smaller companies could end up closing if regulatory costs soared.
“I hope they’re not moving the goal posts too far … it’s about being consistent and not making it unattainable.”
