Public liability reforms welcomed

South East sport and recreation leaders have welcomed State Government reforms to ease the burden of public liability requirements on community groups.
Consumer Affairs Minister Gail Gago has announced the Fair Trading Act will be altered to allow users of recreational services to sign a waiver excluding liability for death or personal injury except in cases of reckless conduct.
“Under the new legislation, consumers will be covered for reckless conduct, so if someone knowingly supplies them faulty equipment and they are injured they will be covered,” she said.
“But operators will be freed of the red tape they are finding confronts them in the current system.”
Limestone Coast Railway’s Bill Towner said public liability was one of the key obstacles that led to Mount Gambier’s heritage tourism train service ceasing to operate over recent years.
He said the railway group no longer provided services, but still paid more than $1000 a year on insurance, largely to cover a day of activity per week under the Work for the Dole program to maintain its depot.
“The changes would help no end,” he said, adding easing of the insurance burden could prompt consideration of a returning the “red hen” cars to the tracks, but it would probably be too hard to overcome other factors now that the service had stopped running.
“Being two years out of service, it would be hard to rekindle,” he said.
“But a drop in public liability would be a bit of a load off. We were prepared to pay insurance, but it was phenomenal; we were paying thousands.”
Mount Gambier Harness Racing Club president Phil Wood said that, like many local sports bodies, his group secured public liability insurance through a national association of similar organisations.
“We’re pretty lucky,” he said, adding the changes would help smaller clubs left to fend for themselves.
“No matter what you do these days, public liability and regulations have taken a lot of the fun out of sports and made it hard on volunteer groups.”
Round Ball Community Development Program coaching director Scott Dickson said public liability costs had to be passed on to his customers, with more than 10pc from fees going towards insurance.
“Anything that is going to potentially reduce costs for families and lead to them seeking additional use of facilities and sports coaching or development would be a fantastic asset during these financial times,” he said.
“A significant decrease in our costs for soccer coaching for children would certainly open the door for more people to access our services and others like it across the region.”
JASON WALLACE