Fifty-one workers were killed while they were doing their jobs last year, the Council of Trade Unions says.

The receiver for Southern Cross Forest Products plans to shut one of the failed wood processor's South Island sawmills, with 79 jobs to go.

Businesses are paying their bills in record time, with the forestry and agriculture sectors winning the prompt payment stakes.

A slice of New Zealand's largest forestry operation has been sold by the Superannuation Fund to six central North Island iwi.

More prosecutions of forestry operators for health and safety law breaches are likely, Labour Minister Simon Bridges said after the industry started its own review.

The forestry industry will hold a major safety review after 11 workers died on the job in the past 13 months.

The dairy industry and Fonterra have a long, long way to go before they reach their full potential, writes Brian Gaynor. The dairy sector should be more focused on added-value products.

A young forestry worker is in intensive care at Gisborne Hospital after he was hit by a log in a forestry block today.

A forestry worker killed by a falling log in Marlborough yesterday has been named as William Bryant.

There are "deeply ingrained systemic issues'' in the forestry industry, New Zealand's work safety regulator says, following the death of another forestry worker this morning.

The export of logs to China is driving an increase in the value of NZ's forestry products - now worth more than $4.5 billion a year.

A man aged in his 20s was killed by a falling tree while working on a forestry block in rural Horowhenua this morning.

Maryanne Butler-Finlay lost her husband Charles Finlay in a forestry accident in July. His was the seventh forestry-related death of the year and his family hoped he would be the last.

Labour Minister Simon Bridges says prosecutions are "very likely" for forestry owners who have breached safety standards.

The introduction of a corporate manslaughter law to deal with work-related deaths in New Zealand is "unlikely", says Prime Minister John Key.

Labour spokesman says foreign firms' drive for big profits putting local industries in jeopardy.

A coroner will hold a series of inquests into forestry workers' deaths with the aim of identifying systemic issues within the country's deadliest industry.

A review of regulations covering genetically modified organisms hinges on a High Court case next week challenging approval for GM experiments on our most populous tree, pinus radiata.

A forestry company has been criticised in the death of worker Reece Reid who was too inexperienced to be felling trees.

An elderly firebug has been jailed for more than seven years today after lighting a series of forest fires south of Nelson.

The Government has opened up much of the volcanic plateau for gold and silver prospecting, including one of the largest tracts of native forest left in the North Island.

With six deaths already this year, the forestry industry has been warned to clean up its act. But in the search for solutions, politics and money are distracting from the focus on the lives lost.