Speech to Safeguard Conference

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

I want to thank you all for your commitment to improving workplace health and safety in New Zealand. 

You are a vital link in the chain of organisational and personal responsibility for health and safety that brings us together this morning. And I will return to this theme shortly.

We are at a unique point in the continuing evolution of our health and safety system in this country.  A watershed, if you like.

We have an opportunity to make some far-reaching decisions to protect our workforce, and to create a world-class health and safety environment.

The report of the Pike River Royal Commission was a defining moment for all of us.

It identified system-wide failures.  The legacy we create for the Pike River workers must not allow such systemic failure again.  We owe it to their families and friends.

I am deeply committed to that.

The Government set up the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety with a very wide remit, but most importantly, to come back with game-changing recommendations.

I am indebted to Rob Jager and his Taskforce colleagues for their report – it is insightful and it has delivered a strong vision for the future.

Rob and the team believe we need “an urgent, sustainable step-change in harm reduction prevention activity” so that “our workplace health and safety performance is recognised among the best in the world in 10 years’ time”. 

Those statements resonate deeply with me as I consider the future shape of workplace health and safety.

Indeed, I’m hopeful we can get to best practice in a faster timeframe than a decade.

The report is a comprehensive document which requires the Government’s careful and thorough consideration. 

I am currently working through the recommendations and, as I said when I received it, I intend responding formally to the report by the end of July. 

I don’t want to rush this important piece of work. 

I have, however, already taken one step – to create the stand-alone health and safety crown agency.  The Royal Commission was convinced of its need, and the Taskforce’s interim advice to me also strongly supported its establishment.

Nominations for the establishment board are being considered now. I expect to announce the board makeup by the end of next month.

It will meet in July and eventually hand over to its on-going successor in December when the agency comes into formal operation.

Legislation to make the agency a reality is being prepared now and should be introduced to Parliament in June. Providing all goes well, we aim to have the Bill become law in October.

There’s an Establishment Unit in the Ministry working through all the issues to ensure a seamless transition of the Health and Safety Group, including Energy Safety, into the new agency.

I know that some of you have had some fun on the Safeguard Forum considering the name for the new agency. 

Some have been laugh-out-loud acronyms, some frankly almost libellous and others have clearly had some deep philosophical pondering behind them. 

In a moment, I’ll put you all out of your misery and announce the name we’ve settled on….a couple of runners-up first though – the Department of Occupational Safety and Health – Finance Minister Bill English quite liked that – DOSH.  He was equally smitten with Central Agency for Safety and Health – CASH.

But, enough.

What we’ve finally decided upon, and it will not particularly surprise you I’m sure, is WorkSafe New Zealand.

That, of course, was what Safeguard liked best – it is short and pithy, descriptive of its job and it has trans-Tasman appeal, given the WorkSafe agencies operating in Australia and our acknowledged need to be more collaborative with our colleagues in like-minded jurisdictions.

WorkSafe New Zealand will be the structure through which the Government will deliver on the Royal Commission’s and the Taskforce recommendations – it will be focused on health and safety and it will work to a crystal clear mandate. 

It will – and it must – do things differently.

We need to improve the focus and priority on safe and healthy practices in our workplaces, and we need to support and collaborate with businesses as they put the right health and safety systems in place.

The new agency will also enforce workplace health and safety regulations and will work with employers and employees to promote and embed those good health and safety practices.

In supporting and collaborating with business, I’m really pleased with one initiative that’s illustrative of what I’m talking about here.

Last week we saw the release of guidelines created specifically to assist company directors make good health and safety decisions. 

The guidelines have been jointly developed by the Institute of Directors and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment with significant input from various employer and employee organisations.

The Ministry, and the new Agency, must make provision of such support – whether it’s regulation, an approved code of practice or a guideline – a priority. 

Indeed, expect to see more similar initiatives shortly.

The first major work ahead is the review of the regulations covering underground mining and public consultation which opened last week.

The Health and Safety Group is, as Lesley Haines discussed with you yesterday, making some fundamental changes to its operations with the objective of becoming a world class regulator.

This work will provide a solid foundation for the new agency.

By 1 July this year, there will be a new Health and Safety Inspectorate in place, with new roles and responsibilities and a new way of working. 

The Ministry’s programme includes an increase in the number of health and safety inspectors from the current 139 to 158, all with increased capability.

The changes focus strongly on ensuring frontline health and safety services are delivered in a more nationally consistent way. 

There will be more focus on proactive and preventative work with New Zealand workplaces – as international experience shows this has the greatest impact in reducing workplace harm.

These changes and the decisions I have announced implementing the Pike River Royal Commission’s recommendations will make a real difference. 

Collectively, they are about making sure the regulator is best placed to maximise its contribution to our goals.

But let me introduce another critical aspect to all I’ve already said: collective and personal ownership and responsibility. 

I spoke to a rural forum two weeks ago and I suggested to that group of sector leaders that there are many valuable, well-intentioned plans for addressing individual aspects of the challenge we face, but there’s an element missing.

I suggest that we are pursuing too many agendas in parallel and in doing so we are not getting maximum value from the intellectual property resident in each.

Our health and safety leaders and our community leaders have real leverage with their business and their communities – together they are a far more powerful force for good, than alone.

I believe it is the duty of each of us and our organisations to step up and own the problem, commit to its resolution, and actively work with each other and the regulator to bring down the health and safety workplace toll.

Success will come, in my view, when we can take the best of what each is doing and, by joining together, add value under an overarching agenda we all own, and are responsible for – Government, business and workers together.

It is early days, but this approach is already working well in the Canterbury rebuild. 

Over 30 leaders have come together from the government, insurance, construction and other sectors to form the Senior Leaders Group. 

They have made a commitment to work together to make health and safety a priority in the rebuild.

The senior leaders group is close to finalising a safety charter for the Canterbury rebuild.  That’s an extremely positive demonstration of a joint approach and it is their response to the likelihood that without a total commitment to safety, we risk:

• One to two construction-related fatalities in each year of the rebuild
• Ill-health and fatalities through exposure to workplace contaminants and other hazards
• 600,000 working days lost through workplace injury and illness; and
• $80 million in ACC entitlements.

The senior leaders group is an example we should be replicating.

They are working to ensure that the rebuild isn’t just on time and on budget.  It must also be a safe rebuild because the Canterbury earthquakes have already caused more than enough tragedy.

Yesterday you heard from an acknowledged, indeed renowned, expert in managing health and safety, Lawrence Waterman.

He spoke of the lessons learned from the extraordinary health and safety performance throughout the 2012 London Olympic build.

Recently in an interview, Lawrence said something I wish to repeat and take as my own:  “Business as usual is not what people want.  They want better than usual.” 

There’s our joint challenge, ladies and gentlemen.

2013 is a critical juncture in workplace health and safety in New Zealand. 

Let’s all see it as an opportunity.

Findings from the Pike River Royal Commission and the Independent Health and Safety Taskforce recommendations are showing us the way.  Serious work is being done, and more is to come, to ensure we do things differently – and as Lawrence has said – better.

Thank you again for inviting me today, and all the best for the remainder of the conference.