'Iron-fist' bill proceeding

Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott

Controversial changes to health and safety legislation pegged as unfriendly to farmers will go ahead with only minor changes, Wairarapa MP Alastair Scott says.

But rural people with concerns about the Health and Safety Reform Bill still had an opportunity to influence the bill's regulations that would apply to farmers, the National MP said.

Mr Scott was given a grilling at a meeting in Havelock North yesterday, attended by nearly 200 farmers with concerns about the implications of the bill, which many fear will result in over-regulation of the agriculture sector.

New Zealand's Special Agricultural Trade Envoy and local farmer Mike Petersen said the strong turnout to a meeting run at the same time as the All Blacks v Samoa rugby test showed how important the issue was to farmers.

Meeting organiser Hugh Pearse said one area of concern was the lack of consultation on the bill at a grassroots level.

"We are definitely not anti-health and safety, in fact we're right behind it. But what we are anti about is over-regulation and the iron-fist approach that's been handed out," he said.

"Common sense should prevail and we don't believe that's been taken into consideration."

A key area of concern for farmers was that the bill would ban passengers travelling on quad bikes, a move Mr Pearse said would have a major impact on farming businesses because it would mean farmers would be unable to show visitors - including stock agents, fertiliser reps and vets - around their properties. But Mr Scott said the passenger ban was not in place and would be a matter for the regulations associated with the bill when it became law, and there was still time for farmers to have an input on the regulations.

Mr Scott, who is on Parliament's transport and industrial relations committee, said little, if anything was likely to change in its wording before the bill was passed into law.

He denied it would impose the onerous regime some were claiming.

"This bill is asking Kiwis to turn their mind to health and safety in the same way they turn their mind to the financials of their businesses," he said.

"It's not to tie people down with paperwork. It's to change attitudes."

Al McCone, an agriculture programme manager with WorkSafe, said the Government's workplace health and safety agency had been listening to the sector's concerns, including about the quad bike issue.

Officials were continuing to work at a top level with agriculture groups to flesh out a "reasonable approach" to regulations around quad bike safety, he said.