|
|
HOSPITALITY ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND Submission by Hospitality Association of New Zealand to the Justice and Electoral Committee on the Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Bill
12 June 2009 Hospitality Association of New Zealand Level 2, Radio Network House, Corner Abel Smith and Taranaki Streets PO Box 503, Wellington Phone: 04 385 1369 Fax: 04 384 8044 www.hanz.org.nz Private Security Personnel and Private Investigators Bill Members of the Committee The Association is voluntary and is primarily funded by membership subscriptions. Our membership of approximately 2370 plus members employ 11,610 full-time and 19,674 part time employees for a total of around 30,000 people. Approximately 83% of the Association’s members are small businesses and owner operated. The Association asserts that this figure mirrors the wider hospitality industry. The Association also plays a significant role in assisting the hospitality industry comply with sale of liquor law through its advice to members as well as the Association’s involvement in, and the promotion of, the HANZ 18+ photo identification card with over 100,000 cards issued since 1999. Service delivery to members is provided through a team of 8 Regional Managers based at local branches around New Zealand supported by a service team in Wellington. Service is delivered through personal visits and telephone contact to members and includes advice to hospitality businesses on a wide variety of industry and compliance issues including liquor licensing and employment. There is also a perception that the Association speaks for and represents the interests of the hospitality industry as a whole. The Association supports the Alcohol Advisory Council’s cultural change approach to minimising harm from alcohol. The Association has considered the bill and makes appropriate comment on selected aspects of the bill. The Association would like an opportunity to be heard before the Committee on its submission. Bruce H Robertson 1. Introduction and Overall Summary 1.2 Under the current 1974 Private Investigators and Security Guards Act, security personnel engaged by premises licensed under the Sale of Liquor Act 1989 are exempt from the licensing requirements of that legislation. 1.3 The Association considers that this exemption should be retained with any licensing and regulation of crowd ccontrollers engaged by licensed premises included under Sale of Liquor legislation that covers, and indeed provides a very similar licensing system in respect of licensees and managers for the purposes of the sale and supply of liquor to the public to that proposed by the Bill. 1.4 Sale of Liquor legislation is the logical place for the licensing of crowd controllers. Specifically, the Association considers that if such security personnel on licensed premises should be registered and subject to minimum training and certification requirements that this be included under the provisions of the Sale of Liquor Act and subject to the oversight of the Liquor Licensing Authority rather than a different body and set of requirements under an Act unfamiliar to the industry. 1.5 While there may be a need for some differences in the requirements in terms of training requirements for crowd controllers, the character and suitability criteria and considerations in respect of applications for general managers certificates under the Sale of Liquor Act are very similar to that proposed in the Bill. 1.6 Further, the New Zealand security guard industry is dominated by large players who will be able to much more easily manage the requirements of the Bill than hospitality operators who are in the main small businesses who engage door staff for Fridays and Saturday nights or occasional functions only. Further, much of the requirements proposed by the Bill are not necessary for door staff on licensed premises and the Association considers that a simpler regime can quite easily be incorporated under sale of liquor legislation. To effect this all that would be required is a technical amendment to the Sale of Liquor Act. The proposed framework under a separate Bill has the potential to create an environment where door staff are too costly to employ so they are not employed at all resulting in an undesirable situation much worse than the status quo thereby counter achieving the Bill’s objects. 1.7 Those security firms wishing to operate as door staff in hospitality businesses would then simply need to ensure that those staff engaged on licensed premises were suitably qualified and certified by the Liquor Licensing Authority under the Sale of Liquor Act and a system of cross crediting could easily be established to work in with the requirements on licensees and managers under the Sale of Liquor Act. 1.8 The current review of the Sale of Liquor Act by the Law Commission occurring alongside consideration of the Bill presents a unique opportunity to both devise a unified and comprehensive legislative framework that provides appropriate control, training, accountability and liability to personnel engaged on licensed premises and streamline compliance on industry participants. 1.9 The provisions proposed by the Bill are different and complex and in their complexity are likely to either be ignored or incorrectly applied. Indeed, the provisions proposed by the Bill in respect of hospitality door staff seem inconsistent with the Government’s desire to reduce compliance costs for New Zealand businesses and create jobs. 2. Comments on Selected Aspects of the Bill 2.2 If however the Bill is to proceed as drafted the Association does support some aspects. The Association supports the measure to exclude persons who perform the work of a crowd controller where such persons perform the role of a crowd controller incidentally to the principal work that they perform, such as a duty manager appointed under the Sale of Liquor Act as prescribed under Clause 15 of the Bill. Indeed, this provision would seem to support the position that licensing of crowd controllers on licensed premises be addressed under Sale of Liquor legislation. 2.3 The Association also welcomes the measure that training requirements for crowd controllers will be developed in consultation with the hospitality industry as well as industry training bodies. Indeed, an appropriate door security qualification has already been developed by the Hospitality Standards Institute, the industry training organisation for the hospitality sector and is currently being provided as part of the HANZ Training Passport for general managers of licensed premises. This qualification includes important safety and security requirements as well as customer service aspects and has been developed with hospitality door staff to meet the specific requirements of both hospitality businesses as well skill participants in customer service and conduct. 3. Conclusion and Recommendations 3.2 The Association further recommends that any registration and training requirements for crowd controllers engaged on licensed premises be prescribed under amended Sale of Liquor legislation. |
|
