Speech given by the Minister of Labour at the Safeguard National Health and Safety Conference 2010

Good morning and thank you for the welcome and for the opportunity to speak to you this morning.

You have a big day with some significant material to be covered so I intend to be brief. But I do not want you to mistake the importance of some of the issues I want to discuss with you.

I don’t need to tell a room full of Health and Safety professionals about the significance of the issues we’re dealing with. You know the serious harm and fatality statistics; you know the economic cost of workplace accidents.

I was watching a piece on Close-Up recently, which many of you may have seen too. It detailed a number of serious accidents at South Pacific Meats near Invercargill, largely the loss of fingers from using the band-saw. I don’t want to get into who is right or wrong in this case, as the Department is still investigating some incidents. But stories like this show the impact of accidents on workers and their families.

As one man noted, his kids didn’t want him to go back to work there after he lost part of his thumb. They were scared he might lose another finger, as no doubt he was. Not only has this family suffered financially, but emotionally too.

We are all committed to ensuring that workers go home to their families and friends each night, safe and uninjured. Your combined commitment is admirable, but the statistics show that our commitment and our programmes have not been as effective as we all would want. There’s a gap between that commitment and action at the workplace.

Last year’s review of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 clearly identified that gap, and I asked the Department of Labour to bring me a new, action-focused plan to bridge the gap.

I now have the Action Agenda for Health and Safety in New Zealand 2010-2013. Some of you may have been consulted in its development and know the direction its taking - for those that haven’t, there are a few copies for you to look at here today.

The Action Agenda is what I was looking for - a shift in our thinking - a narrower, but deeper focus on areas where we can make a difference - and a collaborative approach to resolving problems.

I have still to make final decisions on the Action Agenda, but I can tell you I strongly favour its approach.

So what is different about the Action Agenda?

The first and probably most critical difference is in its title - action.

This is not a strategy; a set of high level policies. What I struggle with is well-meaning, but practically irrelevant documents that identify the problem without framing a concrete plan of tackling it. Yes we all want more co-ordination and more productive partnerships. The focus has to be on how that translates to preventing accidents on the ground, not in the boardroom.

The Department has worked on a carefully focused plan of action that will be judged on whether it results in harm reduction. It identifies the five sectors where the most harm is occurring - construction, agriculture, fishing, forestry and manufacturing - and it proposes the development of individual action plans for each against a set of common action areas.

The next most critical element of the Action Agenda is that these individual action plans will be developed collaboratively with the sector business and worker representatives. The standard business principle applies - involvement creates ownership and ownership creates action.

Each sector action plan will focus on:

• Building effective safety leadership in business and sector leaders;
• Developing capability;
• Building knowledge; and
• Supporting a robust health and safety system is the final element.

There is a lot of substantial and measurable detail underpinning the four areas - all outlined in the Action Agenda.

At the end of the day I expect to see a statistically significant reduction in our workplace injury and fatality rates. It is as simple as that.

I believe we can achieve just this, but in case you think it sounds like the usual words, let me give you some practical examples of how, for example, the Workplace Group in the Department is already translating the Action Plan into legitimate action.

The Workplace Group Harm Reduction programme targets two health and safety problems which link directly to the Action Plan. These are:

• Agriculture Sector - reducing serious harm and fatalities from the use of quad bikes; and
• Construction Sector - reducing serious harm and fatalities from falls from heights.

The programme targets resources at persistent problems that are not amenable to a simple solution and uses a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to achieve the outcomes, sometimes with tailor-made interventions.

The programme is based on collaboration in the development of the actions which, importantly, are measurable for effect.

You will have heard greater detail on this yesterday from the Department in Geraint Emry’s opening speech.

And by the way - when I leave you this morning, I am heading to the Agricultural Fieldays at Mystery Creek where the Department is focusing its involvement on the quad bike issue.

Before leaving you to your day, there are a couple of other important points I want to cover very briefly.

Please take a look at the Department’s Principal’s guide to contracting to meet the Health and Safety in Employment Act. I know Geraint mentioned this yesterday, but it is an important document - more and more work is being contracted out, and meeting your responsibilities in this arena is important.

The guide lays out a process to ensure if you’re contracting the work out, or you’re the contractor, you know what you’ve got to do - there’s a very informative case study with the guide that shows it in action. Manukau City Council is to be congratulated on their innovative work in this area.

Finally, the Adventure Tourism Review. You’ll be aware that the Prime Minister asked me to coordinate this review following some high profile deaths and injuries in the sector.

I received the review from the Department last week - it is comprehensive - it has some strong and carefully thought out recommendations, which I am considering now.

I expect to make my decisions public in the next month or so, once Cabinet has had a chance to discuss them. The adventure tourism industry is a big attraction for international visitors and New Zealanders too. Making sure its safety practices and risk management strategies are first class is crucial for our reputation. It’s important we get this right.

So ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to lay out for you a very important change in our health and safety approach. I welcome it.