Many of the Organised Activities undertaken in the Outdoors of Queensland, will require insurance at some level.

Firstly, it should be noted that there is no substitute for complying with good risk management in your business and following the Australian Adventure Activity Standard and utilizing the Good Practice Guides in context relevant to your activity. This will go a long way towards protecting you and your business from unexpected consequences. However, unintended events sometimes do occur and there are possible consequences of people becoming injured whether that be your participants, your staff or you as the owners of the business all face these potential risks.

After all the risk management processes have been implemented, the next step of protecting yourself and your business will include consideration of the insurance covers available to provide security for you and your business.

Depending on your activities, there may be several insurances you should consider:

1. Liability Insurance – Personal Injury & Property Damage.
   Most business will be required to initiate this cover to be allowed to utilise Local Government facilities, State Government owned Nature Reserves and National Parks areas. Many private land owners will also require this be in place and ordinarily for all of the above situations a Certificate of Currency will need to be provided prior to entry being granted.

If you utilise sub-contractors, there may be coverage/exclusions, premium and excess consequences to be aware of.

2. Workers Compensation – Protecting your Employees
   If you have staff (whether employed or regularly sub-contracted), you will have a responsibility to provide Workers Compensation for them.  In Qld this is ONLY provided by WorkCover Queensland and you can access their guided application processes here: https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/claims-and-insurance/workcover-insurance/types-of-insurance/accident-insurance

3. Income Protection – In Queensland, Directors/Beneficial Owners of a business can’t take out WorkCover for themselves. What happens to your income and your business if you are injured or ill and can’t continue to generate your income? There are several levels of cover available to consider.
4. Voluntary Workers – if you have people assisting in your business that are not under any contract of employment, what happens to their income if they are injured whilst assisting your business?
5. Professional Indemnity – If your business is providing advice/training or other services where people are paying for your advice, you may have an exposure to Professional Indemnity. Not all businesses will have this, and it should be discussed with Your Insurance Broker to determine if you have a risk to consider.
6. Portable Equipment – if you have a reasonable amount of equipment for your business, you may need to consider the risk of that equipment being damaged or stolen from a locked premises or vehicle. Most Domestic Contents insurance policies won’t extend to cover items for which you use to generate income and ordinarily don’t provide further cover away from the premises.

This simple guide has been provided by Your Insurance Broker who are financial members of Outdoors Queensland. There may be additional specific insurance requirements for your own business, and these can be addressed when assessing your needs.

Their contact details can be found herein to provide any necessary assistance in arranging appropriate insurance covers.

• https://www.yib.com.au/
• https://outdoorinsurance.com.au/

See also Outdoors Queensland members:

• Arthur J. Gallagher
• GJ Insurance Consulting

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