Minister of Labour's Speech to 2010 AGM

I want to start by congratulating the Elevating Work Platform association. When I started to think about writing this speech, the first place I went to was your website. Your commitment to health and safety starts in the very first statement about the association. With a primary objective to promote industry best and safest practice, it is clear what the association stands for.

Although obvious to the association and your members, I thought I would share with you some of the information I received, which shows why safety is so important.

As a nation we have a tendency to fall over and injure ourselves. In 2008 it was estimated that the social cost of non-fatal falls was $1.735 billion per annum. In 2008 nearly 5,000 New Zealanders were hospitalised as a result of a fall. Whilst these figures reflect both home and work-based injuries, they do highlight the size of the issue.

Put another way, as part of Budget 2010 focusing on the economy and building the recovery, the National led Government has recently knocked 5 cents off the top tax rate, 5 cents off the company rate and a series of cuts to other tax rates – the biggest reform of our tax system in 25 years. All up, this amounts to about $1.8 billion.

The cost of all injuries was recently assessed at $9.6 billion PER ANNUM. Imagine what we could do with $9.6 billion.

Whilst I am pleased to tell you that fatal injuries across the board have been reducing over the past ten years, I am concerned about fatalities in the workplace.

For example, in the workplace, for the 5 years to 2009 there were 332 fatalities reported to DoL, which is more than one per week. 27 of those 332 related to falls from heights.

Although I am not an expert in injury prevention, I can appreciate that there are readily available solutions to reduce the risks. An elevated work platform clearly offers a more sturdy foundation when working at heights. Aside from the benefit of reducing the risk of falls, it seems obvious to me that productivity gains can be made due to their flexibility and ease of use.

Safety strategies in areas such as construction are working at reducing the death and injury rates, but there are still areas we can target. In April this year I undertook visits to several workplaces around the country. Speaking with employers and employees at these work sites it is clear that their focus has shifted into promoting a safety culture.

This attitude based approach recognises the maturity of our knowledge about health and safety. Machine guards and training courses and Personal Protective Equipment are all necessary components but safety has to be embedded into our workplace culture. You can't simply tell someone to be safe and then wonder why they injured themselves.

The 'she'll be right' attitude is still prevalent in New Zealand and actually its not always right.

70% of injuries are attributed to human error. Whilst progress is being made in design safety, complacency and workers losing focus is unfortunately part of who we are. We therefore need to recognise the importance of attitude.

One of my key goals is to increase the level of importance placed on health and safety on the ground and see more targeted initiatives put in place, led by employers.

From my perspective ensuring the safety of workers is best achieved with a partnership approach. The Government obviously has a role in setting a general direction and the tone but ultimately every workplace is different. The Health and Safety in Employment Act appreciated that a one size fits all approach does not recognise diversity. Inflexible regulation, often created by government agencies in Wellington cannot be responsive to our ever-changing workplaces. Workplaces and the staff in those workplaces are unique and therefore flexibility is needed. You know your workplaces and you are well placed to recognise your hazards.

I also recognise that the Department of Labour is equally in a unique place. They live and deal with health and safety on a daily basis. They are able to see patterns and solutions deployed up and down the country. Bring the department and workplaces together will obviously be beneficial. When people share their ideas, share their experiences, share a common objective, then solutions are possible.

I know that the association has worked with my Department on a number of important training and certification issues and it's this sort of approach that I believe is suited to developing best practice models. I know there will be times when we will disagree. Consultation and working together will inevitably bring issues to the surface. This is all part of any robust discussion. What is important is that solutions are developed and that solutions are pragmatic and workable.

The Department has reviewed its Workplace Health & Safety Strategy. I said to them that a strategy is ok but I wanted to see more concrete and tangible activities. They have now come back to me with a new National Action Agenda – with the focus on the word "Action".  In a nutshell, the action agenda is about turning fluffy strategies into defined actions that are measurable, tangible and focused on priority areas. These areas obviously include the high risk industries of construction, mining, forestry, agriculture and fisheries.

I'm encouraged by what I see and hear when I talk with health and safety professionals. We need to continue to cultivate a safety culture and we need to think innovatively. Recently I spoke at a Working Wise conference where they launched their new 'Gosh' initiative. In short this is a web-based information tool for businesses to use. It collects articles about workplace health and safety practices from around the world so that employers here can see what challenges and solutions are being worked through.

The internet is very useful in this regard and I'm sure more uses can be found to target industries with the information that could make a difference to how they operate. We've got to improve the focus and delivery for occupational health issues; small business especially need guidance and standards to help them; there's a need for a sector-based approach; there's a need for competency standards for health and safety professionals; and there's a real need for worker participation, including training for health and safety representatives.

As is often said, it is hard to manage what you cannot measure. Part of the problem is a lack of solid data and no effective means of gathering it or measuring health and safety indicators. It's an issue at all levels and it's an aspect the Department will be taking a close look at. It is difficult to judge the impact of certain measures, particularly as no workplace is the same and you can't expect every person to behave or react in the same way. But more communication and information sharing is certainly beneficial and if we can do it efficiently between industry and Government I expect we would see several positives. The best ideas more often than not come out of the workplace and the Government can facilitate these ideas and promote them around the country quite readily.

I certainly appreciate associations such as yours who are actively working to promote the safe use hazardous equipment. You set high standards for your members and that's exactly how it should be.

As I mentioned earlier, injuries and deaths due to falls on work sites are a serious problem in New Zealand and getting knowledge from groups like you about how to address this is critical. I am aware of several different cases where builders, electricians or construction workers have fallen off frames, roofs or through skylights.  There are also regular injuries from falls off ladders and scaffolding. All these accidents are preventable and we know the solutions.

We have seen reductions in our road injury statistics. We have seen increased use of seatbealts and attitudes relating to drink driving are changing. Behavioural shifts are possible. We all need to say that workplace injuries are not acceptable. Cutting corners in safety is not acceptable.

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 again for inviting me to speak to you and I trust you will enjoy your AGM.