New Zealand Four Wheel Drive Association Inc.

All New Zealanders understand the importance of safe practices to ensure that people aren't at risk of getting hurt.

Our 4wd clubs have had their own safety policies and practices in place for some time and the organised NZ 4wd community has a history of success with this.

The new Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) has its focus on Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs), a new concept that was unclear about the obligations for 4wd Clubs.

Clubs asked the NZFWDA for guidance, which has now been provided in the NZFWDA Health and Safety Policy and Guidelines document that is available at this link:

Download the NZFWDA Health and Safety Policy and Guidelines here

The policy and guidelines document provides high-level overview and guidance to 4wd Clubs in New Zealand about safe practices when organising and running trips, competitions and events.

While primarily written for 4wd Clubs whose members are affiliated to the NZFWDA, it is freely available to a wider audience.

The key points are:

• Remember that it is everybody's obligation to act safely.
• While the HSWA doesn't apply to volunteers most of the time, sometimes 4wd Club activities can fall under the HSWA.
• Safe practices should be standard as we all want our members, passengers and other participants to enjoy safe 4wd experiences and to get home safely, whether the HSWA applies or not.
• Every 4wd Club should adopt its own Health and Safety Policy and processes.

Further feedback is welcome and the Executive is prepared to consider issuing further versions of the document if appropriate.

The NZFWDA hopes to develop sample Health and Safety document samples in due course and make them available to affiliated 4wd Clubs.

How the policy and guidelines document was prepared:

The team who worked on producing the publication comprised Neville Dunton (NZFWDA President), John Hickey (NZFWDA Northern Zone President) and Grant Purdie (NZFWDA National PRO), with input from National Executive members and numerous other people.

Once they had drafted the document it was scrutinised by the Executive and several other people with relevant experience to ensure that all points of view were taken into account. Once that was complete, the team commissioned the two legal firms Duncan Cotterill and Kensington Swan to review the draft. The team then worked through the copious technical legal feedback from the two firms and fine-tuned the document to apply all the updates necessary.

Then the Executive of the NZFWDA formally approved the completed document for publication.