Whanganui MP Chester Borrows has let rip at what he called "dickhead bureaucrats" for their unbending enforcement of health and safety regulations.
And Mr Borrows told the Chronicle that the draconian stance adopted by some officials was responsible for growing concerns about those regulations.
At a Parliamentary select committee last week he lambasted the bureaucrats for enforcing what he said were sometimes "bull**** rules".
At the same time as the Health and Safety Act was undergoing some changes, a rules reduction taskforce was also having a look at unnecessary red tape and the impact it was having.
"The rules taskforce is about finding the dumb rules and weeding them out," he said.
"What I'm finding is people are getting hacked off with stupid rules and enforcement. I know there are people out there who are really worried about how some will respond to rules and regulations that are simply way over the top."
Mr Borrows cited the instance of a health and safety official visiting a farm where he saw five farm bikes in a shed and five quad bike helmets hanging on the wall behind each bike.
"But he (the official) decided to issue an infringement notice because the helmets weren't actually on the bikes themselves, even though the bikes weren't being used.
"So there's some stuff happening, and people are worried about how far it's going to go."
His own experience was at a waste transfer station where he was told to stand behind a barrier "in case I fell about 90cm on to a concrete pad".
He said Michael Woodhouse, the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, had indicated he was happy to bring in changes to get rid of unnecessary and frivolous rules.
"Some of the health and safety rules, especially when it comes to the farm sector, appear to be way off beam," Mr Borrows said.
"It's concerning when I hear that farmers are worried they may be penalised for an injury a member of public suffered climbing over a fence into a farm property to collect mushrooms."
He said farming was certainly an area "where familiarity breeds contempt" and workplace safety was a concern.
"There was a time when common sense prevailed, but now people are worried that enforcement will simply get too extreme. And when it does it gives rise to the term 'revenue gathering'.
"This should be about enforcing rules on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes officials need to give someone a warning rather than throw the book at them."