AAS Forum February 19 2005

The forum consisted of a number speeches and discussion of six proposals. Despite being given eight days notice, the ORC had not accepted Adventure Victoria's request for discussion of the central issue of recreation being in or out of the scope of AAS.

Bearing in mind that Adventure Victoria had not been notified or invited and in view of our main issue being kept off the agenda, Adventure Victoria assumed observer status.

There were approximately forty-five participants. Most participants had a commercial or other professional interest in the AAS.

Key observations - AAS and schools

The Department of Education and Training and the Victorian Outdoor Education Association gave presentations to explain why the government education sector would not be participating in the AAS. The department willl continue to maintain its own guidelines. In subsequent group discussions, several commercial operators who had long involvement in AAS expressed frustration that the education sector was not going to follow the AAS. The commercial argument was that there should be only one standard.

Ironically this immediately suggests a much simpler solution to the commercial grievance. Since the education standards will be professionally written and are likely to be of a high technical and written standard, they can be expected to be superior to the AAS. The commercial sector could solve duplication and achieve a higher quality of guidelines simply by discarding the AAS project and adopting the education guidelines instead.

Key observations – aims of the project

When adventure Victoria first tried to establish the aims of the project, there was a plethora of interpretations in circulation. We have established through discussion, correspondence and FoI that the funding departments originally supported the project as a solution to the impact of the insurance crisis on commercial operators. Since we began trying to nail this down and in doing so have put pressure on the ORC over not knowing the aims after three yearsof implementation, the ORC itself has settled on insurance as the primary aim.

It was disappointing to find that some participants in the forum, including commercial operators who have participated since inception of the project, are still giving other explanations of the aim of the project. Co-incidentally and mercifully, an SRV speaker correctly recounted the AAS history during a brief concluding talk.

Key observations – Is the AAS compulsory now?

It is compulsory for commercial operators as a condition of their license. It is compulsory for recreational bodies that receive Department of Spoirt and Recreation funding. That's just background.

What worried us was to find that the forum was predominantly in favour of the AAS being compulsory of all visitors to public land. (In relation to the final environment protection section of AAS documents, Adventure Victoria has no issue with the concept. But the quality of those sections is something we have discussed elsewhere.) Some proponents of this pro-compulsion view were quite strident. For example an operator complained that despite having obtained a permit herself, her group would have to share a campsite on public land with uninvited members of the public.

There were few representatives of recreational bodies at the forum and many of those found it difficult to have their views and experience taken seriously.

Keen members of Adventure Victoria will recall that we have drawn attention previously to a symptom of poor regulatory oversight known as regulatory capture. Our interest previously has been a detail of the syndrome whereby a process of industry self-regulation will typically trend towards self serving aims until it serves the industry at the expense of the community. The broader effect, which was incidental to our observations, is that all forms of industry regulation are vulnerable to this trend unless safeguards are put in place, essentially because industry finds ways to ingratiate itself with regulators or to pressure them.

If you thought the subject had just changed, wrong. Sitting in the AAS Forum was like watching an economics textbook being dramatised. Commercial operators in particular acted the roles as if they had been given scripts. Some operators expressed considerable frustration that members of the public are currently free to judge for themselves what conduct is responsible while commercial operators are required to comply with prudential measures detailed in the AAS. (Strangely this was expressed by operators who are substantially responsible for the existence of the AAS.) For example, "If we have to do all these things, why shouldn't everybody else?", "It is absolutely imperative that everybody complies to the same set of rules", "We must all learn to be professional," "We are tired of seeing members of the public not having to come up to the same standards as us." War stories followed. By straining plain reason implausibly, all of these statements are attributed to interest in public safety. And without doubt they are made with genuine conviction. But it is instructive that no views were expressed by the commercial sector or the ORC that did not happen to serve commercial interests.

Disappointingly, at least two activities were represented by recreational groups which supported these views.

The AAS steering committee chair made reference to what she perceived to be heart-warming co-operation by all stakeholders. However she then made the aside that there were some who had "thrown the toys out of the cot". We took that to be a reference to members of Adventure Victoria. At the next break, we exchanged our supposition with a stranger who challenged us for the honour. In fact he was the first of two participants who claimed the honour from us. Which makes you wonder, if we had done a complete survey of the room… and if these are the toy-throwers who actually attended a forum, there must be many more who stuck to type and stayed away! Nevertheless, we want to claim "threw the toys out of the cot" as our own and we will wear it like a badge.