Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Gwyn Thurlow: Deerstalkers Association Chief Executive on landowners no longer responsible for injuries on their site

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Gwyn Thurlow: Deerstalkers Association Chief Executive on landowners no longer responsible for injuries on their site · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the government continues their announcements around health and safety,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and this time they reassured landowners that they will not
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: be legally responsible for recreational activities they prevent on their
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: land and their hope is for liability to fall solely
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on the business or the individual using the land. And
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Gwyn Thurlow is the CEO of the New Zealand dest
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Stalkers Association and has got up early. In fact, it
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: probably isn't early for you, good and you probably get
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: up at this time all the time.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Hello, yeah, good one. It's about the early rising time
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: for a good hunter that's keen to get out there
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: at first light.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I saw yesterday you held this as a return
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to personal responsibility, which is something we've abandoned in recent years.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, this is exactly what that is. And we've
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: had the work Safe action against landowners for accidents not
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: in their control. Under the two thousand percent Acts sort
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: of creep into the space of recreation. It was intended
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: for workers and keeping workers safe, and some of the
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: government agents season the land owners forestry blocks used it
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to exclude recreation and they just didn't want the risk
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: of having people on their land.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, denying us mountain biking tracks and all sorts of things.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: How much has this liability that existed beforehand halted recreational
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: activities around New Zealand.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: It certainly shutgate. It certainly made landowners and corporate landowners
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and particularly hesitant. Some of our big farms and accesslades
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: are now not just owned by mum and dad farmers
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: who you knew years ago down the road just you know,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: speak to Steve and he'll let you in. It created bureaucracy.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: For example, we solved it for our members by taking
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: out a ten million dollar liability policy to ease the
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: pain on some of those corporate types letting people through
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: or on their land. So it certainly had cost implications
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: paperwork admin and for clubs like hunting clubs or tramping clubs,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: it puts a lot of on the organizers of trips
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: to do paperwork and risk assessments. It's just a bit
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: like everything. It's turned a lot of things into a
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: bureaucracy and recreation shouldn't be about.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: That, okay. Now do landowners now have absolutely no responsibility?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Because there was arguments in the courts about for curry
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: White Island, the owners of the land there should have
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: known perhaps that the volcano could explode and could have
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: warned people that, you know, my land's a bit dangerous
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: right now. But do they have absolutely no responsibility.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Now, No, they certainly will have responsibility. They'll have responsibility
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: for their business activities. So if there a farm of
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: their farming, is there a forestry companies of forestry workers
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: and the structures around their business. But if we're just
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: going out the back blocks to access some fishing or
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: go to Hiker Mountain, that's a dock block that backs
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: onto a private land and we're walking through, that's where
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: they shouldn't be liable. But as always they're going to
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: have to identify as them do things safely themselves. But
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: it means that, for example, if I'm taking a group
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: of people through their land on a walk, that I
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: will be responsible for that walking activity. It's got nothing
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: to do with farming or forestry.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: It's just recreating, Okay, Gwyn, Happy hunting and thank you
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: so much for joining us. That is Gwyn Thurlow, who
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: is the CEO of the New Zealand DS Talkers Association.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:30
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• 3:33
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