AusLeisure

Entertainment industry safety consultants Stage Safety are advocating for the compilation of an Australian Entertainment Safety Resource Guide – and have announced a crowd funding campaign to raise money to write a draft Guide.

In a communication to industry stakeholders, Stage Safety state “the live performance entertainment industry in Australia employs almost 19,000 people full time and contributes substantially to the economy.

“Activities carried out by the various organisations cross every sector of manufacturing, construction, hospitality, logistics and of course entertainment.

“As a result the number of WHS Acts, Regulations, Codes of Practice and Australian Standards that could apply to every production is astounding and very confusing for anyone who doesn't deal with Work Health and Safety on a daily basis.

“What compounds the difficulty of finding answers is that rarely things are simple and straight forward and usually several different levels of information are required to find a solution to the problem or 'best practice' guidance.”

Stage Safety highlight that other than, the now, 15 years old Safety Guidelines for Entertainment Industry from Live Performance Australia there are no safety guidelines for the entertainment industry.

They add that “in 2012 the Event Safety Alliance Australia tried to bring people together to collectively write (a new) event safety guide for the entertainment industry by the entertainment industry but sadly failed to raise enough awareness, money and participation.”

Stage Safety suggest that a new Australian Guide “will be roughly based on the UK 'Purple Guide' and USA 'Event Safety Guide' formats.

"The strength of the Australian Entertainment Safety Resource Guide is that it will go beyond the standard Work Health and Safety Act, covering not only health and safety legislation, but industry specific good practice and legislation such as fire safety, crowd management and alcohol licensing.

“And it is not just about big events and the high risks, too often I see people trying to do the right thing but being frustrated by not being able to find the answers they need or getting inconsistent answers.

“By creating a resource guide we can keep looking after each other and our industry in the best possible way.

“Sharing information will improve safety without unnecessary paperwork and increase everyone's enjoyment.

“The main objective to give everyone in the industry the right information to make an educated decision. This is not about adding more paperwork, this is about making it simpler to find the right answer and reducing paperwork so we can focus (pun intended) on what is important for the show ... and still meet our WHS obligations.”

For more information or to be part of the initiative go to www.startsomegood.com/AESRG

There is also a Facebook page to be used for discussions, questions and comments - www.facebook.com/Australian-Entertainment-Safety-Resource-Guide

2nd March 2015 - SYDNEY STORM DISRUPTS GOOD LIFE AND SOUNDWAVE FESTIVALS

20th July 2012 - EVENT SAFETY ALLIANCE AUSTRALIA LAUNCHES

19th July 2012 - ENTECH SAFETY SUMMIT BACKS RULES FOR EVENTS SAFETY

10th August 2010 - CROWD MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM LOVE PARADE TRAGEDY

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.