When asked why this change was being forced upon him, the bureaucrat replied: "How do I know your safety record is down to good practice and not just good luck?"
Five days of instruction is required ... from somebody less practised and less qualified than the quarry man himself.
A month or so ago I went to a transfer station where trailers are emptied into huge bins or dumped on a concrete pad, according to what the rubbish is.
I had green waste and general waste, and reversed my trailer up to the nib wall in the appropriately labelled area and dropped my tree branches and pile of weeds down the 3.5 metres into the bin.
Then I moved my trailer over to drop off the bricks, blocks, timber, etc. down the one metre on the concrete pad, but this area was coned off with those orange witches' hats and there were barriers to prevent me parking my trailer over the lip.
Every block, brick etc would have to be manually lifted over the barrier by hand, rather than shoved off with my rake as I have always done, and which is a much easier process. I moved the barrier and pushed the rubbish off in the normal way.
The tip operator told me his bosses were worried about new health and safety rules and, before long, everyone would be pushing their rubbish over the barriers which were designed to prevent them from falling down on to the pad.
The company was apparently more worried about customers falling one metre than about them falling 3.5 metres into green waste area, because there were no barriers there, though the risk was greater. Go figure!
My bet is there will be a lot more illegal roadside dumping - not just to get around these ridiculous rules but also to escape the $27 fee for the privilege of being dicked around.
These three examples are just a few.
There is also the story of the Ministry of Primary Industries officer who was going to fly from Wellington to Whangarei to check that the toilet block was far enough away from the killing floor to satisfy their rules, and charge the abattoir owner several thousand dollars for the privilege, until I intervened.
Or the environment ministry official who would drive from New Plymouth to Hawera before he would agree that an eyelet stay holding up a school sunshade and broken in a storm could be replaced, and then had to return to check it was sufficiently repaired so that the invoice could be paid.
The costs for travel were far greater than the cost of repair and came from the school's operating budget intended for educational purposes.
The guys wielding the red tape are getting out of hand. Next they will require us to wear safety gloves to unroll toilet paper.
The Government, via Paula Bennett and Jacqui Dean, is running a series of "listenings" to reduce red tape. Make sure you give them a good speaking-to when there is a session near you, or make a submission online in the next couple of months.
-You can find information on the Rules Reduction Taskforce at https://www.govt.nz/browse/housing-and-property/rules-reduction-submissions/
