Insurances
Council’s insurance policies include two types of cover; one that relates to injury to persons or property and another relating to personal accident insurance that covers personal injury to you whilst carrying out activities at a facility on Council’s behalf.
Council’s insurance policies protect your office bearers and volunteers, as long as you act reasonably and within the scope of Council’s delegated authority. Unauthorised, unlawful, or negligent acts may attract personal liability.
Civil Liability Act
Under the Civil Liability Act 2002 a volunteer does not incur any personal civil liability in respect to any act or omission done or made by the volunteer in good faith when doing community work organised by a community organisation or as an office holder of a community organisation.
The Civil Liability Act does not confer protection from personal liability on a volunteer, if:
- the volunteer was engaged in conduct that constitutes an offence;
- the volunteer was unable to exercise reasonable care and skill when doing the work significantly impaired by reason of the volunteer being under the influence of alcohol or a drug voluntarily consumed (whether or not it was for medication) and;
- the volunteer failed to exercise reasonable care and skill when doing work.
Please refer to Code of Conduct if you require further clarification.
Personal Accident Insurance
Council’s Personal Accident Insurance indemnifies all volunteers who carry out tasks related to the management of a Council facility. Council’s Personal Accident Insurance does not include activities carried out by a user group, such as a collision between players during a game or a dance instructor injuring him/herself whilst undertaking a lesson at a community hall.
Public Liability - Formal Groups
All formal groups hiring a facility (i.e. Incorporated Associations, sporting clubs, associations of any kind; or commercial or profit making operators) are required to take out a public liability policy with an approved insurer. This policy should be for a minimum sum insured of $20 million and should name Council as an interested party, indemnified by the policy.
Some user groups may be able to obtain Public Liability Insurance cover through an affiliation with their association. A hirer must provide Council or the Booking Officer with evidence the policy is in force when the hirer signs the Community and Recreation Facilities User Agreement Form.
If a hirer of a community or recreation facility wants to stage a one off “special event”, such as a gala or market day the Booking Officer must ensure the hirer has Public Liability cover for all activities within the ‘event’ and seek Council’s consent for such an event to occur. Refer to Special Events for further information.
Regular hirers such as schools must provide evidence of their current Public Liability Insurance and pay the appropriate fee.
Public Liability - Casual Hirers
Council has Public Liability Insurance covering casual/regular hirers, provided they are not using the facility as a representative of any registered organisation including an incorporated association/club, or commercial operator.
In the event of an accident or incident, your group should attend to the incident but not admit liability to a potential claimant or anyone representing a potential claimant, as this is a breach of insurance policy conditions and may result in loss of cover. You must report potential claims to both the Volunteer Safety Officer and Council immediately.
Council approved contractors of the facility must provide Council or your group with evidence of their Public Liability Insurance cover. Please contact Council if you have any further enquiries regarding the matter.
Contents and Property Insurance
All hirers of Council facilities are responsible for insuring contents or equipment belonging to them. Council will not accept responsibility to replace damaged or stolen property, owned by hirers.
Page Last Updated: 28 May 2014