Fitness Training Services in Public Areas | Blog #2

In my Blog #1 last week, I mentioned that I would be posting about Fitness Australia's structure and how it operates. However, in the meantime, we were recently asked about how things were going with respect to advocating for fair and reasonable policies on the provision of fitness training services in public areas. So here is a quick update on this issue instead.

Fitness Training Services in Public Areas

The provision of personal and group fitness training services in public areas has expanded rapidly over the past few years. Undertaking physical activity and exercise in the great outdoors has always been popular with Australians owing to the great climate, environment and sense of space. The fitness industry is catering to this demand by providing an increasing range of personal and group training services in public areas, such as beaches, parks, public gardens, sports fields etc.

Accordingly, with the increase in supply of fitness training services in public areas, in response to consumer demand, Local Government Authorities have sought to develop and introduce permits and licence schemes to manage and regulate these services and activities, particularly in areas of high impact.

Across the eight States and Territories of Australia, there are hundreds of Local Government Areas, and therefore, the potential for a vast array of different types of local government policies and regulatory schemes that have already been developed and may emerge in the future. Obviously, this makes individual consultation and lobbying efforts with Local Government extremely challenging.
In order to provide a reasonable and workable basis for the development of policy and regulation in this area, Fitness Australia has developed a Position Statement that is used to assist consultation with Federal, State and Local Government Authorities on this issue. The Position Statement contains six guiding principles and five policy recommendations. The six guiding principles are:

1. Maintenance of professional standards in service delivery;
2. Access for all;
3. Protection of the physical space;
4. Risk management;
5. Realistic, consistent, coordinated regulation; and
6. Maintenance of outdoor physical activity options for Australians.

Fitness Australia has also developed a series of recommendations for the provision of fitness services in public areas. This document includes examples of a number of Local Government policies and regulations that are generally in accordance with these recommendations and appear to work well for the local fitness industry service providers.

By creating these policy recommendations, Fitness Australia is seeking to influence government to introduce consistent, fair and reasonable policies and regulations with associated licence or permit schemes that are affordable for small businesses and easy to administer. Ideally, to achieve greater consistency, we believe that these policies and regulations should be administered by the State and Territory Governments. However, this is not always the best scenario. For example, in the case of Victoria, the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) introduced state-wide regulation on the use of Crown Land by commercial operators in July 2011. Unfortunately, prior to the introduction of this legislation, the fitness industry was not adequately consulted on this issue and the legislation, although developed to cover ‘commercial tour operators’, also ended up including recreation providers including personal and group training service providers.

Fitness Australia has since met with the Deputy Director General of the DSE and the Chief Advisor to the Minister on this matter. As a result of these meetings, the DSE has agreed to commission and fund an independent regulatory impact study on the effect that this legislation may have on fitness training service providers in Victoria. The study is being conducted by accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers. We anticipate a response before the end of September 2012.

Fitness Australia has incorporated this issue as a major government advocacy initiative in its current strategic plan, but we also need the fitness industry to be alert to policy or regulatory developments in their local area.

Registered Personal trainers and other fitness service providers who become aware of or who are concerned about Local or State Government policy or regulation in this area should contact Fitness Australia on 1300 211 311 for advice and assistance.

Although lobbying efforts take time and are not always immediately successful, a united, professional and determined approach by the fitness industry to this issue is very important and an effective way to build relationships with government and influence their decision-making processes. Fitness Australia can assist registered PT businesses and professionals to have their say in this debate at the local level.
Fitness Australia’s recommendations for the provision of commercial fitness services in public areas can be found on the website at http://www.fitness.org.au/article.php?group_id=1389