Editorial: Some industries inherently hazardous

The large fishing industry has been cited as a possible reason for high workplace accidents in the East Coast. Photo File

As a court reporter I attended many WorkSafe prosecutions.

Charges seemed commonplace. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment was at its litigious best, pushed either by a drive to reduce workplace accidents, or by a drive to be seen as doing as much.

The material argument was whether employers had taken "all practicable steps" to ensure the safety of their workers.

Some convictions were justified - some were farce. In the later camp were the odd workers who decided it was a good idea to put their hands in moving machinery, only to later argue there was no physical barrier to prevent them from being idiots.

Either way, yesterday's news from Stats NZ that the Gisborne/Hawke's Bay region's workers had the highest work-related injury rate in 2016, wasn't surprising.

It cited a high proportion of workers in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry.

Yet the common, clumsy inference from said stats is that these industries continue to be the domain of cowboys. But I suggest that's the wrong inference.

Farming, fishing and forestry - by their very nature - pose a matrix of hazards.

During my life I've enjoyed all three of those arenas, and respectively have had skin ripped off my hip after falling from a speeding quad bike, had a fish hook lodged in my thumb and was rushed to hospital after opening up my foot with a chainsaw.

Not all vocations can be mitigated to the extent some bureaucrats insist on.

The East Coast's stats deserve serious redress. And employers should acknowledge the issue.

But so too should workers take all "practicable" personal responsibility to keep themselves safe.