This is a concept website · Enquire about this domain

eventplanner.net.au

Guide 5 of 5 · Safety and crowds

Event safety and crowds: the organiser’s duties under safety law

SafeWork NSW says it is the event organiser’s responsibility to plan, manage and monitor an event for the health and safety of workers, volunteers and the visiting public, and that the organiser will generally be a PCBU, a person conducting a business or undertaking, with overall responsibility for work health and safety. WorkSafe Victoria says Victorian organisers are legally bound to make the event safe for all who attend or work at it.

General information, not legal or safety advice. The official places to check are SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria and the work health and safety regulator in each other state or territory.

Must, should and may

SafeWork NSW’s guide to managing work health and safety at events opens with a key to its own language:

“The words ‘must’ or ‘require’ indicate a legal requirement exists that must be complied with. The word ‘should’ indicates a recommended course of action, while ‘may’ is used to indicate an optional course of action.”

SafeWork NSW, Managing work health and safety at events guide

The same guide reads “event” widely: any gathering arranged in advance for a shared purpose, from sports events, festivals and fairs to markets, concerts and shows.

New South Wales

The primary duty, shared

An event usually has more than one business on site. SafeWork NSW gives food stands and lighting contractors as examples: they carry their own safety duties and must work with the event organiser, as the primary PCBU, so risks are eliminated or controlled. Organisers must consult, cooperate and coordinate with the other businesses sharing those duties. And a PCBU must also ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that visitors and the public on site are not put at risk.

The guide’s legal requirements for organisers, in its own “must” words:

  • identify reasonably foreseeable hazards that could create risks to health and safety;
  • “take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of crowds”;
  • have an emergency plan, as clause 43 of the WHS Regulation sets out;
  • make sure workers hold a current Australian high risk work licence relevant to the work they do, and any other authorisation the WHS laws require;
  • have low voltage generators connected by a competent person, with generators and inverters that supply power through permanently connected RCDs set to a maximum tripping current of 30 mA.

Its “should” list includes liaising with NSW Police, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance, the SES and local authorities about the emergency plan, and consulting NSW Ambulance on medical and ambulance cover. Music festivals in NSW must now operate with a Health and Medical Plan, after amendments to the Music Festivals Act 2019.

NSW’s Event Starter Guide adds four more points:

  • serious injuries or deaths at the event are notified to SafeWork NSW, as work health and safety legislation requires;
  • fireworks are illegal to operate without a SafeWork NSW licence, either a pyrotechnician’s licence or a single-use fireworks licence;
  • anyone carrying out a “security activity” must be licensed for it;
  • public liability insurance is usually a condition of approval, and in most cases the cover asked for is $20 million.

Victoria

Identify, assess, control

WorkSafe Victoria puts the organiser’s duty under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004: a duty of care to provide a safe operating environment, so that people are not exposed to risks from the event and every place where employees or self-employed people work is safe. It sets the work out in three steps:

  1. Identify the hazards that could hurt someone; its examples are slips and falls, electrical hazards and problems controlling a crowd.
  2. Assess each risk by how likely the hazard is and how severe the harm could be.
  3. Control the risks with practical steps to eliminate or minimise them, such as safety measures, protective equipment or changed procedures.

On crowds, WorkSafe Victoria asks for special attention to crowd density, safe ways in and out, and clear pathways. Organisers must have plans for emergencies such as fires, medical emergencies or crowd control issues, with clear procedures for evacuation, communication and first aid. They also need a suitably qualified person to make sure the event complies with OHS laws, and effective systems for choosing and managing contractors. Amusement rides come with their own regulations, which WorkSafe Victoria says are now in force across the state. For planning beyond the law, it points to the multi-agency Victorian Guidelines for Planning Safe Public Events.

Queensland and the ACT

The Events in Queensland guidelines say that only trained, licensed professionals may use fireworks there, that the Explosives Inspectorate is notified at least seven calendar days before a display, and that nearby neighbours hear about it at least four days before. They add that an event employing workers must have workers’ compensation insurance. In the ACT, WorkSafe ACT says it is the PCBU’s responsibility to have the right approvals from it in place, and that without them activities or events may be prohibited.

Crowded places

Australia’s Strategy for Protecting Crowded Places from Terrorism places the primary responsibility for protecting a crowded place on its owners and operators, including a duty of care to take steps against foreseeable threats. Transport for NSW’s special events guide applies the same words to events. Where terrorism risks are identified, NSW’s Event Starter Guide says to develop the response with the local NSW Police Force Area Command, and points to the Crowded Places Security Audit and Self-Assessment Tool.

Safety threads through the other four guides too: the exits of a marquee, the emergency access through a closed street, and the RSA rules for serving liquor.