Specific event regulatory issues

For any event to proceed, organisers need to meet a range of general and specific event regulations that include:

  • responsible service of alcohol
  • food safety
  • occupational health and safety (OHS)
  • environmental regulations including noise and waste
  • security and crowd control
  • fireworks
  • ticketing
  • entertainment
  • use of temporary structures.

Responsible service of alcohol

Service of alcohol is highly regulated, covering the age of drinkers, opening hours, and the licensed venues in which alcoholic beverages can be consumed. Alcohol cannot be sold to persons under the age of 18 and there are significant fines and the potential loss of licence for those who disregard this requirement. However, there is more to the legislation for responsible service of alcohol. The objectives of legislation around Australia are reasonably uniform and can be summarised as:

  • encouraging responsible attitudes towards the promotion, sale, supply and consumption of liquor
  • providing adequate controls over the sale, disposal and consumption of liquor
  • minimising the harm or ill-health associated with the consumption of liquor
  • facilitating and regulating the sensitive development of licensing issues within the tourism, hospitality and liquor industries
  • facilitating the use and development of licensed facilities reflecting the diversity of consumer demand.

The types of licences that can be applied for under liquor licensing legislation of states and territories fall into two categories:

  1. On-licenceswhich confer the right to sell liquor only on the licensed premises. These include restaurants, motels, function centres, theatres, universities, airports, boats, aircraft and public halls.
  2. Off-licenceswhich confer the right to sell liquor for consumption off the premises. These includeretail or wholesalers, vignerons, brewers and auctioneers.

Generally a permanent or temporary function licence allows liquor to be sold at functions approved by the Licensing Court. The licence can only be granted to a bona fide non-profit organisation that has a constitution, rules, articles of association, or other law that governs its activities (except where the function is a trade fair). The court can grant a licence for the sale of liquor at a dinner, ball, convention, seminar, sporting event, race meeting, exhibition, performance, trade fair, or other fair, fete or carnival, or any similar event or activity that is conducted for public amusement or entertainment, or to raise funds for any charitable or other purpose.

All states and territories have responsible service of alcohol provisions in their liquor legislation. Any person engaged in the sale, supply and service of liquor on licensed premises in every state or territory in Australia is required to hold a Responsible Service of Alcohol Certificate.

Food safety

The food safety regulations in each state and territory are based on the Food Standards Code developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). The food standards included in each state or territory’s legislation are enforceable under the law. The following Standards may be relevant to event organisers:

  • Standard 3.2.2 Food Safety Practices and General Requirements— this outlines specific food handling controls related to receipt, storage, processing, display, packaging, transportation, disposal and recall of food, as well as the skills and knowledge requirements of food handlers and their supervisors, the health and hygiene of food handlers and the cleaning and maintenance of food premises and equipment.
  • Standard 3.2.3 Food Premises and Equipment— this specifies the requirements for food premises, fixtures, fittings, equipment and food transport vehicles.

A national food safety standard for catering operations to the general public has also been proposed and is under development.

It is a criminal offence in Australia to supply food which does not comply with relevant food standards. Notwithstanding food standards, it is also an offence to sell food which is damaged, deteriorated or perished, adulterated, or which is unfit for human consumption.

Occupational health and safety (OHS)

The term occupational health and safety refers to the concept of ensuring that all workplaces provide a safe and healthy environment for their employees and others entering the workplace. This concept aims to reduce work-related injuries and disease that can occur within workplaces.

The Federal Government is moving towards a national approach to OHS. Currently, workplaces must abide by their state or territory OHS legislation unless they are a commonwealth authority or a corporation operating under a self-insurance licence under the Safety, Rehabilitation & Compensation Act 1988, known as the Comcare scheme.

The current system of both commonwealth and state/territory OHS legislation also means that there are differences between the legislative requirements of each state/territory in regards to OHS.

In general OHS is based on a systematic approach to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all employees and others at places of work. To achieve this OHSlegislation sets objectives to:

  • secure and promote the health, safety and welfare of people at work
  • protect people at a place of work against risks to health or safety arising from work activities
  • promote a safe and healthy work environment
  • provide for consultation and co-operation between employers and employees on OHS issues
  • ensure that risks to health and safety at a place of work are identified, assessed and eliminated or controlled
  • develop and promote community awareness of occupational health and safety issues
  • obtain a progressively higher standard of occupational health and safety.

To ensure that these objectives are met, OHS legislation places duties and obligations on everyone at work regardless of the type of work, type of industry or the conditions or circumstances in which the work is carried out.

Ensuring that these objectives are met will not only provide compliance with the legislation, but will safeguard your workplace or event from any unforeseen incidents or accidents and the possible negative publicity that may bring.

Some workplace hazards have the potential to cause so much injury or disease that specific regulations or codes of practice are warranted. The national OHS standards and codes of practice are not legally enforceable unless commonwealth, state and territory governments adopt them as regulations or codes of practice under their principal OHS Acts.

Environmental regulations

Noise

The legislative responsibility for controlling noise lies with individual states and territories. Local government authorities generally use this legislation to establish their own policies on noise which they govern through their approvals process. Police and local government rangers have the power to ensure that decibel levels and time restrictions are not abused.

Waste

The Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) develops and implements national policy, programs and legislation to protect and conserve Australia's natural environment and cultural heritage. It develops and coordinates a range of programs to reduce waste, either by encouraging material efficiency, reducing the generation of waste, or enabling the recovery and reuse of discarded material.

The legislative responsibility for managing waste lies with individual states and territories. Local government authorities generally set their own policies on waste.

Many state governments have developed specific waste reduction and management policies for the event industry due to the generation of high quantities of disposable material.

Security and crowd control

The legislative responsibility for the security industry lies with individual states and territories. Generally the state or territory police services are responsible for regulating the security industry.

Appropriately licensed security companies manage the control of crowds, the collection of money, monitor the responsible service of alcohol and protect assets.

Fireworks

Australia has many state and territory safety rules and regulations. A fireworks display in Sydney will have different governing legislation to one held in Adelaide, Melbourne or Canberra. The Australian standard that provides guidance is the (AS) 2187.3 ‘Shopgoods Fireworks’.

State and territory legislation is based upon the National Standard for the Storage and Handling of Workplace Dangerous Goods (NOHSC) and the National Standard for the Control of Major Hazard Facilities.

The sale and display of fireworks in the states and territories are specifically governed by regulations that sit within dangerous substances legislation.

Ticketing

Conditions for the sale, promotion and refund of tickets to events is governed by the Trade Practices Act 1974 and state and territory fair trading legislation.

Consumer protection laws exist in all states, territories and nationally. The Trade Practices Act 1974 is the federal legislation that provides consumer protection nationally. This legislation is limited to the business activity of companies. Each state has its own fair trading act that duplicates TheTrade Practices Act for individuals and non-corporate businesses.

The Trade Practices Act applies to just about every aspect of an event business, for example, advertising, price setting, and transactions with other businesses or consumers.

In 2005 the Australian Entertainment Industry Association introduced a code of practice for the Ticketing of Live Entertainment in Australia.

Entertainment

The legislative responsibility for the entertainment industry lies with individual states and territories. Some states have enacted legislation such as The NSW Entertainment Industry Act 1989.

The aims and objectives of the legislation are generally to:

  • promote the development and growth of the entertainment industry
  • provide for the development of codes of ethics for the entertainment industry
  • provide a forum for the hearing and resolution of complaints in the entertainment industry
  • develop a framework that will provide for the self-regulation of the entertainment industry.

In addition to specific entertainment legislation the states and territories deal with places of public entertainment (POPE) in a number of different ways. The approvals processes for POPE vary from state to state but in most cases are facilitated by local government. POPE is a place where public entertainment is provided. This includes licensed premises, but extends to any facility where live music is played.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property recognised and embodied in The Copyright Act 1968. The Act applies to certain materials including literary works, dramatic works, musical works, artistic works, films and videos, sound recordings and broadcasts.

Whenever music is performed in public, communicated or reproduced the songwriter may be entitled to a payment or royalty. This is because The Copyright Act 1968 gives writers what are known as 'economic rights' which cover certain uses of their music. By licensing and allowing the public performance, communication or reproduction of their music, songwriters may generate income known as royalties. For the event organiser, this means that a license will be required for the inclusion of public performances of the music.

Licences are also required if the event involves exhibiting motion pictures containing sound recordings. In most instances, copyright approval will also need to be gained for use of images in posters and advertising materials.

Use of temporary structures

Many events include the need to build temporary structures. These include stages, amusement rides etc. Approvals for the erection of temporary structures vary from state to state.

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