School principals made it known recently the threat of being held responsible under the new health and safety rules meant that they would no longer allow billeting for any school activities.
If one thing has bridged the urban-rural divide it is the placement of urban students in rural homes and vice versa around the sporting and cultural activities we all grew up partaking in.
Those who were uneducated in the different lifestyles of the people they were billeted with were left in no doubt as to how the other half lived and were often taken well out of their comfort zone as they were expected to just fit in.
Most relished the experience and were better for it.
The fact this is now in the too-hard basket will be the death of many small towns hosting regional events and many a rural group making the trip to the big smoke for a widening of their education.
Another activity that has been both a revenue source and a community asset is the hiring of rugby clubrooms or sporting grounds for 21st and wedding parties.
It seems under the new health and safety rules this, too, can leave the club and its committee responsible and facing investigation should an accident happen.
So, again, there goes the new rugby balls for the Ripper Rugby team and when Jack wants to do the right thing by Jill and get married the only place he may do it is at the bottom of a hill because there is a definite health and safety issue climbing the hill to fetch his bride a drink of water.
Now, I understand the importance of workplace safety and coming home to see the kids at the end of the day, in fact, I’m all for it. I’m all for common sense and self-responsibility too, but both the subjects I have written about here are devoid of any of these things.
The common sense of putting young people in good homes while on billet has always been paramount. The self-responsibility of those hiring a venue has been sorted by the agreement and bond.
If one thing has bridged the urban-rural divide it is the placement of urban students in rural homes and vice versa.
If either of these community activities needs to be regulated by the workplace health and safety laws as work-related activities then watch out because the IRD will be taxing billets as fringe benefits next.
There are two things a wiser man than me should have invested in 15 years ago. One is an irrigation company in Mid Canterbury and the other a company that makes hi-visibility clothing.
Both have gone gangbusters over the last decade.
There is now more steel visible above the ground in Mid Canterbury than concrete water races below ground then there’s all the fluoro colours you have to look at any event or workplace.
One would argue they are both hard on the eyes and they both make lots of money for those selling them.
In the case of the fluoro clothing, I believe those wearing it are more in danger now than 15 years ago.
When I saw a high-vis vest in the past it was a rarity and something to slow down and take heed of or the person wearing it was a person of power demanding respect of those he or she was instructing or protecting.
These days everyone must wear the fluoros for their own protection and if you go to an event you can become blinded and disorientated by the vests of every colour, way too numerous to count.
Simply put, they have lost their desired effect because they have become too common.
I have seen pedigree show animals and horses normally as quiet as a pet lamb turn feral and become a danger to themselves and their handlers when encountering their first high-vis vest to the point of becoming a health and safety issue and having to be removed from the event.
The issue I have with all of this is that the good work being achieved in the workplace is inflicting pain as it spills over into the community environment.
The rural community is once again dying slowly of a thousand cuts where the new health and safety laws indirectly hold the sharpest, most evil knife.
