Little comes out swinging on health and safety

Leader of the Labour Party, Andrew Little. Photo / Supplied

Labour leader Andrew Little has come out swinging against workplace health and safety regulations proposed by the government.

On TV3's The Nation this morning, Mr Little denied playing politics with workers' health and safety by opposing the law change making its way through parliament.

The proposals have this week attracted ridicule by including worm farming and mini-golf in a high-risk category, which excludes dairy farming and other occupations perceived as risky.

"The main thing about the Health and Safety Reform Bill was about getting things in place to have a good culture in the workplace. There was a consensus about that and when the bill was introduced it was actually in pretty god nick," Mr Little said.

"Something has changed in the last few months. I think what's happened is that the National Party has decided, or their supporters in the farming lobbies have said we don't want a bar of this and even though that is the sector that has the worst record of fatalities and serious accidents, this government is bending over backwards to exclude farming businesses that actually need legislation like this to improve their performance."

Mr Little said all workplaces should be able to choose to appoint a health and safety representative if they wanted one.

"The reason for that is when you're dealing with your health and safety issues, concerns you have about health and safety at work, actually going to a peer, your equal in the workforce, is a way better way to go than relying on the manager or the boss who may not know the full detail, which has been unfortunately the practise in far too many fatal accidents in workplaces so far."

All the exemptions from that in the current bill had turned it into a "total mess".

Mr Little was also asked about the 90-day employment trial. He did not say if Labour would repeal the legislation, but said: "We will restore the rights to fairness."

Mr Little said Labour would consider withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement if it had no benefit to New Zealand,.

"If that agreement doesn't meet our bottom lines, it undermines our sovereignty, it fails to protect farming, it fails to protect the Crown's obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi, and there's no material benefit to it, we won't be sticking around."

When asked if he'd consider allowing New Zealand First leader Winston Peters to serve as prime minister in a Labour-led government, even for just part of a term, Mr Little said it was too far away from the next election to discuss coalition agreements.

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