Christopher Luxon emphasised “balance” in discussing changes to WorkSafe, while Brooke van Velden highlighted employer “fear”.
New Zealand’s workplace fatality and injury rates are significantly higher than Australia and the UK.
WorkSafe lost 15% of its staff, with no new funding, shifting focus from enforcement to education.
Two interviews – both bad in their own unique way.
During his Morning Report interview on changes to Worksafe, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon used the word “balance” or “rebalance” five times in five minutes. The Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/brooke-van-velden-drops-c-bomb-after-labour-asks-her-whether-she-agrees-with-column-containing-sexist-slur/JKBZ6MQXUNGI7CTX4UNXK3XKHI/" target="_self" rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/brooke-van-velden-drops-c-bomb-after-labour-asks-her-whether-she-agrees-with-column-containing-sexist-slur/JKBZ6MQXUNGI7CTX4UNXK3XKHI/">Brooke van Velden, used the word “fear” more than 10 times in her interview on changes to WorkSafe – particularly around the fear that employers faced in dealing with health and safety.
Our workplace fatality rate is 60% higher than Australia and more than 500% higher than the UK. Our serious injury rate is 35% higher than Australia and more than 330% higher than the UK. In New Zealand, there were 62 workplace deaths in the last measured year. There were between 750 and 900 ”work-related health deaths”.
These are “caused by long-term exposure to hazards and illness caused by acute injury”. That’s a work-induced death every nine hours. Eighteen deaths a week.
In the last full year of measurement, there were more than 35,000 injuries at work resulting in more than a week away from work. That’s one less than every 15 minutes. We have no corporate manslaughter offence in New Zealand, common around the rest of the world.
In 2024, the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum Report found that, “if we were to match the United Kingdom’s (UK) performance, we would save $3.4 billion per year” in costs due to lost lives, lost earnings, serious injury costs to ACC, and health issues.
Yet according to the Government, the problem with current health and safety practice in New Zealand is that there is “a fundamental concern that WorkSafe can be heavy-handed in applying punishment when something goes wrong, but not always sufficiently supportive in providing advice to PCBUs (person conducting a business or undertaking)on how to manage their risks”.
This is a Government that is showing us what it values. Employers’ time is important. The emotions of employers are important – the fear the minister mentioned. But when faced with statistics like those in New Zealand, a Government with a functional moral compass would be putting more resources into WorkSafe.
Instead, WorkSafe lost 15% of its staff in the 12 months to December 2024. Then it was asked to cut another 54 roles. At the Budget last month, no new funding for WorkSafe was provided – but $7m was returned from WorkSafe to the Government.
So instead of tackling this problem head-on, the Government cuts the funding, fires the experts, and then tells the public it’s time to “rebalance” the risks of the “fear” of prosecution further away from employers.
If the problem was engagement with employers, then more staff to deliver that engagement would be crucial. If the problem was poor legislation, then why do the UK and Australia – with essentially identical legislation – manage this better? If the problem was funding, then why take money away?
Minister Van Velden says there won’t be any new funding. Photo / Mark Mitchell
As Minister Van Velden said of WorkSafe this week, “No, there won’t be any new funding. I’ve heard from people who have suggested there does need to be new funding, and I disagree”.
If the problem was one of focus, then why set up a road cone hotline when workers are dying?
Instead, the job of WorkSafe in delivering safer workplaces in New Zealand will be an education role rather than an enforcement one. This is in marked contrast to other areas of government.
In welfare, we are taking an increasingly punitive approach. The Minister for Social Development put out a press release after the Budget saying, “New sanctions drive benefit accountability”.
The ability to access Jobseekers Support is being curtailed for 18 and 19-year-olds. Act leader David Seymour says there will “almost certainly” be prosecutions against parents of absent students this year as the Government intensifies its crackdown on school truancy.
This is a country that still remembers the price paid by workers at places like Pike River. Nearly 15 years ago, 29 men lost their lives. Rather than face prosecution, the CEO of Pike River and the Pike River Coal Company cut a deal and paid $3.4m to the families. Even though WorkSafe believed it had enough evidence to prosecute.
The Supreme Court later ruled that arrangement unlawful and a “bargain to stifle prosecution”. How does this change make this less likely to happen?
If “rebalancing” means anything, it means that the costs have been rebalanced onto the shoulders of working people. If “fear” means anything, it means that workers face the fear of not going home to their loved ones.
