Fear 'cowboys' will return

Q & A: New forestry safety legislation uses "weird language", said MP Michael Woodhouse (on right, in white shirt). PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY

Log prices have leapt up and Michael Woodhouse hopes they won't tempt "the cowboys" back into forest harvesting.

The National list MP and minister for Workplace Relations and Safety was in Whanganui last month, sitting around a table with six representatives from the forestry industry. He also visited Imlay and Belverdale Hospital and met with Federated Farmers and Whanganui's Community Patrol.

Log prices have increased by $20, a leap equivalent to an extra $1 for every kilo of milksolids. Last time they were up was "a horrible year" for the industry - it was 2013, and 13 people were killed in forestry accidents.

The high prices tempted "cowboys" into the harvesting business, one contractor at the meeting said. Another reported one person had been killed in his business in 2012, and he had carried four others out of the bush when working for previous companies.

"It's not easy, and it has a profound effect on the business and the wider community."

A new code of practice has come in since, doubling the time and effort harvesters must put into health and safety. In the past two years there have been three deaths and the number of serious harm incidents has halved.

Now summer is here, the roads are dry and log prices are up. Forests coming on stream now tend to be smaller, private and on "crappy terrain", so the potential for accident rates to increase is high.

Mr Woodhouse wanted to know whether safety culture had changed, or whether "cowboy" practices would resume.

The people he asked were from companies with better health and safety practices. They got jobs harvesting big corporate forests and stayed in business while log prices were lower.

One said bereaved Rotorua father Wiremu Edmonds had talked to thousands of people about "standing in the gap" and convinced forestry workers to take responsibility for the safety of their mates.

Safety was now a subject at morning meetings now and two workplaces had trained health and safety representatives with the power to stop work if conditions were unsafe. At others, everyone felt responsible.

Mr Woodhouse said the new safety legislation would reinforce that, and lots of advice would be given before it came into effect in April. It used "weird language" but made everyone responsible for the safety of their own team, and of others around it.

He also wanted to know what the contractors and employers thought of WorkSafe inspectors. The men said that varied.

Some inspectors had been interpreting the rules differently from others, some were very good and a few were petty and vindictive.

"It's going to take a little while to get them to a different mindset - less of a punisher and more of a partner," said Mr Woodhouse.