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-licences which 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.
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2. Off-licences which confer the right to sell liquor for consumption off the
premises. These include retail 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.
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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 OHS
legislation 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.
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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,
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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 The Trade 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.
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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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