Safeguard Conference

Sky City Convention Centre, Auckland
31 May 2012

I would like start by congratulating the award winners from last night. The breadth and imagination in their winning programmes was very significant. We can all learn from the entrants – whether winning or not.  

This morning I've been asked to give you a Ministerial perspective of health and safety. It's something I take very seriously and we all must take very seriously.

This term the Government has four key priorities. These are to responsibly manage our finances; deliver better public services; build a more competitive and productive economy; and rebuild Christchurch – which as a Cantabrian includes Canterbury in the wider sense.  

We are a week on from the Minister of Finance's budget which laid out the tight economic parameters the Government is working within, and in which your businesses are operating.

To achieve our goals we must do better with what we have, be more effective and more efficient in allocating our financial and human resources. There are challenges, not the least being the impacts of the 2008 recession, the global financial crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes. However for the first time in a number of years we will be raising enough revenue to meet our commitments without having to increase debt.

In the Labour portfolio specifically I have four main priorities:

• Improving flexibility and fairness in the labour market
• Strengthening the health and safety system
• Improving labour standards on foreign chartered fishing vessels, and
• Achieving efficiency savings and delivering better public services.

Strengthening the health and safety system is an absolute priority.

I don't need to tell you what we're dealing with – you know the scale, and equally importantly, the stubbornness, of the problem.  But there's a few statistics I want to remind you of because they are critical to what follows.

Our official rate in the latest Statistics New Zealand data is 4.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers, compared to about 2.1 for Australia and 1.7 for the United Kingdom.

Last year 41 workplace deaths and over 6000 serious injuries were reported to the Department of Labour. And remember too that those figures do NOT include deaths and injuries in the aviation and maritime sectors.

There have been minor annual variations but we are not making any real dent in those figures. We must.

Just before the Budget, I announced the Government had agreed to a special four year funding package of $37 million dollars for workplace health and safety. Some of this money will used to increase the number of health and safety inspectors from 148 to 180 – bringing us in line with Australia – and up-skill the existing inspectorate.

As we have learned with the High Hazards Unit, that monitors our mining and petroleum industry, having the right people on the ground, with the right skills, the right experience and the respect of the industry is vital. This is about sending the message that safety is paramount and that we all need to focus on changing the culture and attitude in New Zealand. If safety systems are well planned, well implemented and regularly audited then the culture of workplace health and safety will improve and less people will be harmed at work.

Alongside the funding announcement I decided to set a firm target to aim that at. I want a 25 per cent reduction 2020 in work place deaths and serious injuries. On last year's figures that means 30 deaths not 41; and 4000 not 6000 serious injuries reported to the Department.

I have also announced the formation of a task force to review the country's health and safety system.  This is a fundamental review to determine if it is fit for purpose. The Health and Safety in Employment Act has been in place for 20 years. It's been 10 years since there's been a review of any substance. This review, I believe, is particularly timely with the Canterbury rebuild gearing up and the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River tragedy due to report back in September.

We are currently finalising the membership of a taskforce to help with the review – it needs to have the right people looking at health and safety from the point of view of employers, workers, health and safety professionals, etc. The scope of the review is also important – targeted enough to be meaningful but broad enough to consider fresh thinking.

I have already floated the idea of a safety star rating for businesses – and I can say that I am working with the ACC minister to see how we can work better together operationally. ACC work with falls in the home and my department work with falls in the workplace – it's only logical that there should be more synergy between us.     

The significance of the funding, the target for harm reduction, and review should not be underestimated, and I want to make clear that the interlinking of the three elements is critical.

Each supports the other; each builds from the other; and none would be as effective without the others.

I know that Lesley Haines from the Department talked to you yesterday when she opened the conference about the change programme the department is involved in.

What the Department of Labour is doing is important but reducing the unacceptable toll of death and serious injury in our workplaces will not happen without support and action from employers, unions – and especially health and safety professionals like you.

That is why I've made sure that some of that $37 million will be used to fund joint government-industry initiatives, or sole industry initiatives in high risk sectors.

Over the past few years we have focussed on reducing harm in five priority areas that have the worst rates of fatality and injury. Action Plans have been announced to reduce workplace harm in agriculture, manufacturing, construction and forestry sectors; and the fifth action plan for the fishing industry is being developed. The additional funding will help industry bodies implement their initiatives to improve workplace health and safety.

Some of the new funding will also be used to get more information about workplace safety to employees and for training health and safety representatives. Inspectors will also engage more actively with health and safety representatives when visiting workplaces.

As I've said, there needs to be a change in the culture of health and safety in New Zealand. It's something we all need to work together on. Instead of being a compliance cost to business, proper workplace health and safety practices must be seen as an investment. People perform better when they are physically and emotionally able to work and want to work, which in turn leads to higher productivity, more jobs and higher wages. Productivity and safety go hand in hand – one is not a trade-off for the other.

International experience shows that the best outcomes in workplace health and safety occur when three elements are present and each is playing its part to the full:

• Employers living up to their duties under the Health and Safety in Employment Act;
• An active and engaged regulator; and
• Employees actively participating in and developing workplace health and safety

Underpinning the Health and Safety in Employment Act is the principle that, fundamentally, employers are responsible for workplace health and safety and have to take all practical steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work. The new business-facing Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will be in an excellent position to send clear safety messages and influence good business health and safety practice across a range of fronts. Safe and skilled workplaces remain a priority.

The new Ministry will help to create jobs, higher wages and increase the prosperity of all New Zealanders.

That means making it easier for businesses and companies to access innovative ideas, markets, capital, skilled workers, resources, and the supporting public infrastructure. The Government has a comprehensive business growth agenda to assist business, and a single focused business-facing government ministry will further boost our momentum.

I would like to conclude by stressing that we should be focussing not so much on “what must we do” but “why we must do it”.

Too many of our workers are going to work and returning home injured – or not at all. It's not acceptable that we can lose a worker almost every week, or that a farmer is injured every 30 minutes and one is killed every month.

When every person who goes to work returns home to their family in one piece, then we will know we are doing the right thing.

Thank you for your time, commitment and passion for improving health and safety in our workplaces.