Record WHS Penalty Handed Down for Dreamworld Fatalities

Dreamworld operator Ardent Leisure Ltd has been convicted and fined a total of $3.6 million after pleading guilty to three charges relating to the deaths of four people in October 2016 on its Thunder River Rapids Ride.

The penalty is the largest fine in the history of WHS prosecution in Australia.

Each charge concerned a breach by the defendant of its primary safety duty under s.19(2) of the WHS Act to ensure that the health and safety of members of the public were not put at risk.

Four guests on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at the Dreamworld Theme Park were killed after the raft they had been travelling in collided with another raft. The extensive Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation revealed failures across a number of areas.

In pleading guilty, Ardent Leisure accepted that it failed, so far as was reasonably practicable, to ensure: the provision and maintenance of safe plant and structures; the provision and maintenance of safe systems of work; and, the provision of the information, training, instruction and supervision that was necessary to protect all persons from risks to their health and safety.

In sentencing, Magistrate Pamela Dowse observed, “The defendant operated the most iconic amusement park in the country. It targeted and attracted families. Those who were at risk from its failures were guests at the park, including those guests who tragically lost their lives. Complete and blind trust was placed in the defendant by every guest who rode the Thunder River Rapids Ride. Those guests were vulnerable.”

“The failures of the defendant were not momentary and did not occur on the day of the incident. They were failures well before then, which led to what ultimately transpired. Nor were they confined to a discrete safety obligation,” Magistrate Dowse said.

“Whilst the defendant directed resources towards safety, and implemented some control measures and improvements over time, its efforts were grossly below the standard that was rightly expected of it. A variety of control measures were available to it, which would have minimised or eliminated the relevant risk.”

“The defendant was aware of the risk of failure of the administrative controls, but continued to rely too heavily upon them, notwithstanding that, in most of the previous investigations into incidents on the ride, the primary cause was attributed to operator error in failing to follow operation procedures.”

“In some instances, reasonably practicable control measures which would have reduced the risk were identified, but not implemented. The defendant failed to appreciate the increased risk in not doing so.”

Despite being the historic size of the fine, some have questioned whether the fine was adequate when compared to other corporate offences outside of WHS.

Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of South Australia, Rick Sarre, told the ABC that while the fine was significant in terms of Occupational Health and Safety breaches, it was substantially less than other corporate penalties – such as Westpac’s recent $1.3 billion fine for anti-money laundering breaches.

“What we tend to find is very, very large, multi-million dollar, or even hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties being given out for Trade Practices breaches, but only small or comparative penalties being exacted where people’s lives are at stake, which is an interesting dilemma in itself,” he said.

“The Trade Practices legislation for those breaches tends to allow criminal penalties of tens of millions of dollars, whereas the Occupational Health and Safety legislation doesn’t have those same maxima, and that’s the reason for this fairly low by comparison penalty.”