More about Charging for SAR

It wasnt so much a hint as an attempt to separate the politics of rescue from the fact that a tourist was missing in circumstances that were not optimistic. To a degree the above does happen now where family extend searches after the public search is finished but I would hate to see this cause a lesser search to be done by Sar for either those that can afford there own search or those that cant. Sar needs to remain publicly funded as much as practical. We have a better system here now than a lot of countries. Even in America your chance of a decent search depends entirely on the competence of the powers that be on the day. There is now overseeing national or even regional body to make sure its done right.

Charging for SAR is a topic that arises every time a tourist goes missing... as someone involved in the SAR sector I am happy to add my two cents to this discussion. Firstly - the overwhelming majority of SAR operations are for Kiwis - some 90%+ off all operations... Secondly - SAR activities in NZ total in the 10's of millions - tourists bring in billions of dollars - its easy to understand that NZ wins here... Thirdly - the cost of setting up, administering the system and chasing up non-payers would in all likelihood exceed the income via insurance... Fourth - many would still avoid the insurance in the first instance, yet still require rescuing - after all what do you do - put them back where you found them when there is no insurance card? Fifthly - there are already instances of tourists believing they have to pay and therefore avoiding SAR teams and/or helicopters... we don't want that getting any worse. I have taught SAR skills in 6 countries and love the system we have. Everyone from Police/RCCNZ down do a great job and provide excellent service. Lets encourage people to visit the back country - after all it has some magical spots. The few that require SAR services are an unfortunate reality - but many people all over the country would not have it any other way.

Beautifully argued Tony.....I couldn't agree more.....and well done to all you SAR guys (non-sexist comment).....sincerely hope I don't ever meet you, (meant in the nicest possible way)......!

Yes, thanks Tony for structuring it far better than I could. Hi Geeves. Yes the one that comes to mind was the Liat Okin search about three years ago, which involved a massive and international effort after the official Police/LandSAR search was wound up. (Someone threw togethet this short video -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhhcaJMKfVY ) It's fully understandable why family and friends will take these actions and nobody should be prevented from doing so when it's within their means, but the official search also had reasonable reasons for slowing down given that (sadly) the chances of finding her alive were thought near-zero at that point. Telling a person they can't visit the outdoors in case they hurt or lose themselves, or financially crippling them because they tried without fully thinking it through and made a mistake, is something I never ever want to see happen in NZ. Charging for rescues, particularly one-off rescues of individuals who don't keep getting into trouble, won't reduce the number of SAR ops or do much at all to save public money. It'll only create a new way to be in debt and increase the number of people who owe money without being in a position to pay for it, and (perhaps) create an occasional young tourist with no money trying to sneak out of the country. Perhaps there are a few people out there who might never learn, but there's already a wasting-police-time mechanism for dealing with that on the rare occasions when it occurs. But yeah, I guess one of my many concerns with charging back for rescues is simply that if we start putting the cost obligation onto the rescued, the next logical step is to ask what happens when they can't pay for it.

I was thinking about the pilot that disappeared last year but all the arguments are the same. We do have one of the best search and rescue systems and one of the best ACC systems in the world from a victims viewpoint and I hope we can continue to be able to afford it