Yes, is the short answer here. If your event involves lighting, sound, video, or scenic elements suspended above a stage, dance floor, or seating area, New Zealand law requires that work to be planned and carried out by someone with the training and competence to do it safely. For most corporate events, that means a certified rigger, not a well-meaning staff member with a ladder and a spool of cable ties.
As experts in event solutions, this is a question the team at Technical Event Solutions (TES) often gets asked from event organisers, marketing teams, and venue managers. People always want to know “Can we just get one of our own people to hang the truss, or run the lighting rig ourselves to save on cost?” The honest answer from the professionals is that rigging sits in a category of work New Zealand’s health and safety law treats with particular seriousness, because the consequences of getting it wrong are severe and often irreversible.
Why Rigging Is Treated Differently Under NZ Law
Every event in New Zealand, whether it’s a product launch, a conference, or an awards ceremony, takes place under the framework of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA). Under HSWA, your event company, your venue, and often your own business are each a PCBU, a person conducting a business or undertaking. Each PCBU carries a duty to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable, and where more than one PCBU is involved in an event, those parties are required to consult, cooperate, and coordinate on shared risks.
Rigging work, suspending trussing, moving lights, line arrays, projection screens, or set pieces above people’s heads, is exactly the kind of activity WorkSafe NZ expects to be managed with a formal, documented approach. WorkSafe’s own guidance on load-lifting and rigging sets out recommended procedures, loading configurations, and equipment standards for this type of work, and explicitly notes that it should be read alongside current industry standards.
The penalties for getting this wrong are understandably significant, especially where peoples lives may be at risk. Under HSWA, a company found to have failed in its duty of care where someone was exposed to a risk of serious injury or death can face fines of over a million dollars, and if that failure is judged reckless, the maximum penalty rises to several million and the possibility of imprisonment.
For a corporate client hosting a one-night event, that is an extraordinary amount of exposure to carry over what might look, on the surface, like a straightforward job of hanging a few lights.
Weight Loads Are Important
One of the most common misunderstandings encountered by rigging specialists is around Working Load Limits (WLL). Every piece of rigging hardware, a shackle, a chain hoist, a truss span, a clamp, has a manufacturer-rated maximum load it can safely carry. Exceeding those limits is potentially dangerous and unlawful. Industry guidance developed for New Zealand’s entertainment sector states plainly that it is illegal to exceed the Working Load Limit on any rigging equipment, and that safety factors must be increased, typically to at least 8:1, in high-risk situations such as loads suspended directly over people (see this handy guide provided by the Regent Theatre in Dunedin for some context Safe Rigging Practices for the Entertainment Industry in New Zealand).
Calculating a safe load isn’t a matter of just making a rough guess, it requires understanding the combined weight of trussing, fixtures, cabling, and any dynamic movement, then applying the correct safety margin for the venue, the structure being used as an anchor point, and the audience configuration below. Unfortunately a DIY rigging approach almost always skips this calculation entirely, because the person doing the rigging has never been trained to do it in the first place.
The Secondary Backup
A properly rigged event doesn’t rely on a single point of connection for anything suspended overhead. Every fixture, every length of truss, every hoist point should carry a secondary safety, typically a rated bond or safety cable, independent of the primary connection, so that if the main rigging point fails, the item is still held. This is standard practice across the entertainment and events industry, and it’s the kind of detail that separates professional rigging from a setup that merely looks secure.
Without a secondary safety in place, a single dropped shackle, a worn sling, or a clamp that wasn’t torqued correctly becomes the only thing standing between a working rig and a fixture falling onto a stage, a dance floor, or a crowd. It’s the sort of failure that a certified rigger is trained to design out of the job before the event even begins.
Rigging Certifications And Qualifications
New Zealand has a defined pathway for rigging competence. NZQA offers the New Zealand Certificate in Rigging at Levels 3, 4, and 5, and the New Zealand Certificate in Entertainment and Event Technology at Level 4 includes a specific strand in entertainment rigging (NZQA, Reviewed qualifications).
Industry guidance for the entertainment sector goes further, stating that a person should hold at least a Level 4 certificate with a rigging specialisation before they are considered competent to perform event rigging work independently. There is also a Certificate of Competence pathway through Skills Active Rigging NZ for people who have gained equivalent practical experience or hold overseas qualifications.
This matters for anyone booking certified AV technicians in Christchurch, or anywhere else in New Zealand, because a genuine qualification means the person on site understands load calculations, equipment inspection, safe working practices at height, and how to read a venue’s structural documentation before a single truss goes up. It’s a level of competence that simply cannot be replicated by an in-house team, however capable they are in other areas of event delivery.
Why Insurers Care As Much As WorkSafe Does
There’s a commercial dimension to the rigging equation too, public liability and event cancellation insurers routinely expect that any structural or rigging work carried out for a corporate event is performed by suitably qualified professionals.
If an incident occurs and it emerges that rigging was handled by uncertified staff, or that documentation such as load calculations and equipment inspection records doesn’t exist, insurers can decline claims. For a corporate client, that turns what should be a covered incident into an uninsured loss, on top of the HSWA exposure already discussed. Professional rigging isn’t an added cost item to trim from the budget, its part of what keeps the rest of your event insurable.
What This Means For Your Next Event
If your event brief includes stage lighting installation, hanging speakers, or suspending any scenic or AV element above people, the safe and compliant path is the same one WorkSafe, NZQA, and the insurance industry all point to: engage a team with certified riggers who calculate loads properly, install secondary safety on every point, and document the job as they go.
Yes, it costs more than asking a staff member to climb a ladder, but it’s the difference between an event that runs safely and one that exposes your business, your guests, and your own personal liability to risks that are entirely unnecessary.
If you’re planning a corporate event anywhere in New Zealand and want lighting, sound, or staging handled by people who are specialists in the industry, the Technical Event Solutions (TES) team can talk you through what compliant, properly documented rigging looks like for your venue and your budget.
NZ Rigging FAQs
Do I Need A Certified Rigger For A Small Event, Or Only For Large Productions?
Size isn’t the deciding factor, load is. If anything is suspended above people, whether that’s a single moving light on a small truss span or a full production rig, the same HSWA duties and Working Load Limit rules apply. A certified rigger will assess the specific load and venue rather than the scale of the event, so even a modest corporate function with an overhead lighting bar should be assessed by someone qualified to do it.
Can Venue Staff Or In-House AV Teams Legally Do The Rigging Themselves?
Only if they hold the relevant competence, such as an NZQA Certificate in Rigging or an equivalent qualification recognised through Skills Active Rigging NZ. Being confident with a ladder or experienced in general AV setup doesn’t meet the standard HSWA expects for suspended loads. If in-house staff aren’t certified, the work should be handed to a qualified rigger, even if the venues own team is doing everything else.
What Happens If Something Goes Wrong During An Uncertified Rigging Job?
Beyond the immediate safety risk, an incident involving uncertified rigging can trigger a WorkSafe investigation, prosecution under HSWA, and a declined insurance claim if it turns out proper documentation and qualified personnel weren’t in place. The financial and legal exposure typically falls on the PCBUs involved, which can include the event company, the venue, and the client hosting the event.
How Do I Check That A Rigging Or AV Company Is Actually Certified?
Ask to see the qualifications of the individuals doing the work, not just the company’s general credentials. A reputable event solutions provider should be able to produce this without hesitation, along with load calculations and inspection records for the specific job.
Does Hiring A Certified Rigger Cost Significantly More Than DIY Rigging?
There’s a cost difference, but it’s smaller than most people expect once it’s weighed against the risk. Certified rigging includes proper load calculation, secondary safety on every point, and documentation that supports your insurance cover, all of which protect you from a far larger financial and legal exposure if something fails. For most corporate events, it’s a modest line item next to the potential cost of an uninsured incident or an HSWA prosecution.