Bridges Simon: Health and Safety Reform Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: Health and Safety Reform Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16705. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Labour):I move That the Health and Safety Reform Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee to consider the bill. The Government is committed to improving health and safety at work. This bill represents the most significant law reform in this area for 20 years. The bill’s main purpose is to provide for a balanced framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. The new law will play a major role in helping us meet our target of reducing New Zealand’s workplace death toll by 25 percent by 2025.The bill’s development has been prompted by a number of events most tragically the loss of 29 lives at the Pike River coalmine. The bill addresses recommendations from the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy and of course the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety. I thank the task force for its work and I am pleased that this bill gives effect to a range of its recommendations. The bill builds on the important work already done: the establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand as the new independent workplace health and safety regulator and the changes to mining health and safety legislation that brought New Zealand into line with international best practice for the mining industry.The bill is central to creating a world-class health and safety environment but this will not happen in isolation. A shift in the way that we all view our involvement in and responsibility for health and safety at work is needed to make a lasting change in our safety culture. I therefore commend the forestry industry for convening the Independent Forestry Safety Review Panel to investigate the contributing factors to the high rate of serious injuries and fatalities in that industry and to recommend practical steps for change.Most workplace health and safety legislation in developed countries follows what is commonly known as the Robens model named after Lord Alfred Robens’ 1972 report to the British Government. The Robens model provides for performance-based general duties that ensure broad coverage of work in workplaces to be specified in the Act. These all-encompassing duties support innovation and provide flexibility for businesses. Under the Robens model these broad duties are underpinned by industry or hazard-specific regulation such as specific rules for mining petroleum exploration or major hazard facilities with approved codes of practice and guidance to clarify and assist people to understand what is required of them. Australia and the United Kingdom have both confirmed their Robens-based models as the best approach after recent reviews. Our own review confirmed that a properly implemented Robens model is the best way forward for New Zealand as well and this bill the Health and Safety Reform Bill reflects this approach.The Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety recommended that the core concepts in the bill should be closely modelled on the Australian Model Work Health and Safety Act. The Government has carefully considered areas in the model Act that need to be modified to reflect New Zealand’s specific context. Having said this variations to the model Act have been kept to a minimum and have only been made for good reason. That approach was recommended by the task force and I would respectfully like the select committee to keep this in mind when it considers the bill.The driver for adopting and adapting the Australian model health and safety regime in New Zealand is not harmonisation or alignment with Australia. However simplifying workplace health and safety for trans-Tasman businesses is an important ancillary benefit of implementing a version of the Australian regime here. Being able to draw upon the significant resources body of knowledge and jurisprudence developed in Australia is another strong benefit. This is especially the case when it comes to the suite of regulations codes of practice and guidance material that has been developed to support the model Act. The royal commission and the task force both told us that the inability to develop these independently in the past was a major contributing factor to our failed implementation of the Robens model through our current legislation. In short there is no point reinventing the wheel if an excellent one already exists.The Health and Safety Reform Bill is an omnibus bill. The first five parts will become the Health and Safety at Work Bill to replace the current Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and the Machinery Act 1950. The bill will also result in amendments to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act the Accident Compensation Act the Employment Relations Act and the WorkSafe New Zealand Act to ensure there is a consistent and robust health and safety framework.The current work health and safety regulatory framework places a strong emphasis on the employer and employee roles with a fixed workplace setting. This is no longer suitable to address modern working arrangements. Modern working arrangements can contain multiple employers with diverse workforces made up of employees contractors and indeed others. Irrespective of a person’s role within a workplace they should have the appropriate level of obligation to make sure their safety and that of others is not adversely affected.This starts with the person conducting a business or undertaking—a PCBU. A person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure so far as is reasonably practicable that no one is put at risk from the work carried out as part of their business or undertaking. Workers are afforded the same level of protection by the bill no matter what the working relationship whether they are employees contractors or self-employed.Parties in the upstream supply chain of goods and services including designers manufacturers importers and suppliers of plant substances and structures also have obligations depending on what is within their sphere of influence. Directors and other officers in governance roles must be proactive ensuring that the person conducting a business or undertaking complies with its duties and obligations. The due diligence duty on officers in relation to persons conducting a business or undertaking is new and will ensure that decision makers are held accountable for the health and safety consequences of their decisions.The task force said that our current worker participation system was not working. The bill addresses this by expanding worker engagement participation and representation requirements. It acts to encourage workers to get involved ensuring a framework exists to support workers in having a say in matters of health and safety that affect them without fear of repercussions. The bill contains a strong and effective enforcement regime with new enforcement tools and graduated offence categories and penalties. Higher penalties for non-compliance are introduced where appropriate and distinctions have been made between the role and nature of the offending duty holder. The penalty regime under the bill is complemented by a wide range of enforcement tools including enforcement undertakings or training orders which can work to improve health and safety awareness and culture in ways that monetary penalties cannot always.The bill although central to improving health and safety at work is one part of a broader reform package. Introduction and consideration of the bill is occurring parallel with the development of the first phase of health and safety regulations with public consultation on these regulations expected to begin by early April. Development of codes of practice and guidance material will also begin shortly as these are fundamental parts of the framework which are necessary to ensure that a robust and effective system exists and is operational on the day that the new Act comes fully into force. I anticipate that this will be 1 April 2015.Effective health and safety at work makes good business sense. It is an investment in productivity worker engagement and reputation and everyone must recognise that health and safety is something they have a part to play in and a responsibility for. Seventy-five people each year are killed and many more are seriously injured in our workplaces. The legacy we owe to these people and their families is to ensure that we deliver robust and effective work health and safety legislation so that everyone can return home from work every day safe and unharmed. I commend this bill to the House.