Feedback wanted: New Zealand starts work health, safety consultations

The New Zealand government has launched a roadshow to seek public feedback on work health and safety in its first step to reform related legislation.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced on Friday that she will be travelling across the country over the coming months to hear from businesses and workers impacted by the current regulations.

"I want to listen to experiences with our work health and safety system, including what they think the role for government should be and where they think we've got the requirements right and wrong," van Velden said in a statement.

Among the issues that the government wants feedback on include:

• Whether health and safety requirements are too strict, or too ambiguous, to comply with.
• Difficulties caused by the overlap between work health and safety legislation and other requirements.
• The actions that businesses undertake, the reasons behind these actions, and their effectiveness.
• Whether consequences for not complying with health and safety obligations are appropriately balanced and reasonable.
• Whether the threshold at which work-related risks need to be managed is under- or over-cautious.

The roadshow comes after van Velden unveiled earlier this year her plans to hold public consultations on the decade-old Health and Safety at Work Act.

"I think it is an appropriate time we take a step back and assess whether the health and safety system is fit for purpose," the minister previously said.

Employers welcome consultation

Employer associations welcomed the launch of the consultation after previously citing concerns about the Health and Safety Act.

Brett O'Riley, chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA), said one of the issues about the current legislation is its "overly complex system based on compliance."

"As a first step, we need legislation and regulations that are clear, consistent, understandable, and effective," O'Riley said in a statement. "They also need to be adaptable and allow employers to implement appropriate health and safety policies and procedures that reflect the actual risk of different work environments."

Catherine Beard, BusinessNZ Advocacy Director, also said they will urge member businesses to contribute to the consultation.

"Feedback from member businesses tells us that in many instances the health and safety regulations pertaining to their industry can be too strict, too loose, too many, too few, disproportionate to the risk, ambiguous, unreasonable or just not sensible," Beard said in a statement.