Rafting operators hit rule snag
Four whitewater rafting operators have been left on the riverbank after changes to adventure safety rules.
Regulation of commercial whitewater rafting trips was transferred from Maritime New Zealand to WorkSafe on October 1, a longplanned move requiring safety checks by accredited auditors, and registration as an adventure activity.
About 30 rafting companies are already on the adventure activity register, and WorkSafe acting chief executive Mike Hargreaves said four other operators were not permitted to run rafting trips until their registrations had been completed.
Some were caught out by the fact that auditor Qualworx did not have the appropriate accreditation to certify whitewater rafting.
Queenstown-based Go Orange had to hurriedly organise an audit by Adventure Mark, the only rafting auditor accredited by WorkSafe certifier Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ).
Go Orange customer experience manager Russell Thomas said its registration was finally confirmed this week. The delay was due to ‘‘issues outside our control during the transition from Maritime rule to WorkSafe.’’
WorkSafe had decided in early October to allow Go Orange to continue rafting trips, based on a previous Maritime NZ audit that was valid until 2021.
Qualworx chief executive Graham Hill said it had not certified any operators for whitewater rafting. The company did not respond to further questions about its audit accreditation.
According to documents released on the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) website, concerns were raised back in May about the significant burden the change to rafting regulations would put on auditors and whitewater rafting operators already struggling with the fallout from Covid-19, but WorkSafe opted not to seek a delay in transferring responsibility from Maritime NZ.
Internal memos and a ministerial briefing also show that WorkSafe let its formal recognition of three safety auditors and JASANZ lapse at the end of 2018. The error was only discovered in early 2020, during investigations into the fatal volcanic eruption of Whakaari White Island.
The lapse meant safety auditors should not have been issuing safety audit certificates from January 2019. Adventure activity registrations temporarily ceased while audits of 76 operators were checked.
WorkSafe described the lapse as a ‘‘technical oversight’’ that was put right by May. Hargreaves said systems had been enhanced to ensure it did not occur again. ‘‘In our view, there were no legal implications.’’