Little Andrew: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14589. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): I just want to take a reasonably brief call on Part 1 of this bill the Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill. This is a very important part about the governance if you like of WorkSafe New Zealand the new agency that will take responsibility for workplace health and safety leadership in New Zealand. Of course we know—and there has been ample research—that good health and safety practice in the workplace also means good health and safety practice in the home and in the community more widely. Workers who are well drilled well exercised and well trained in health and safety practice in the workplace take it back into their homes and the wider community. One of the bigger claims on ACC is injuries caused by DIY. So this is a great opportunity with WorkSafe New Zealand—a dedicated agency—to get it right.It is a great opportunity to repair the mistake of 1992. The failure in New Zealand’s health and safety performance goes back to the failures in the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 where we did a half-pie job in reforming health and safety. We drew on the English model which had been in place—would you believe—since 1974 thinking that we would do the same thing. But of course we did our workplace health and safety reform at probably the peak of anti-unionism anti-collectivism and anti - independent-worker voice and we did the wrong thing. We had an opportunity then to have the open-textured law that was the Health and Safety in Employment Act which replaced the plethora of legislation that we had—the Machinery Act the Construction Act the Boilers Lifts and Cranes Act and every other piece of industry-specific legislation you could think of. We replaced it with this open-textured legislation but what we did not do was support that with a range of other measures.One of the things we did not support it with was a commitment to genuine tripartism in the workplace. The reality is this: the people who are dying and who are being maimed and injured in our workplaces are not the managers and they are not thebusiness owners; they are the front-line workers. Those ones—whether with their trade skills their certificates of completion for their on-the-job training or whether they are simply learned in the task they are required to perform—are the ones who are suffering the injuries and they need to be involved in decisions about health and safety.For that to be meaningful and indeed for that to be led we need an agency that reflects that tripartism as well. The independent voice of workers must be reflected in workplaces along with the independent voice of employers. They must all be reflected in the governance of WorkSafe New Zealand. That is about sending a signal about how we want health and safety management to be conducted in the future. But it also has a practical effect on the leadership of health and safety regulation in this country.So I urge the Minister of Labour to rethink and to consider the Supplementary Order Paper 387 that has come forward which provides for a recast board of WorkSafe New Zealand and equal representation of the social partners—workers employers and the Government.I think that if this Minister were to do that then that would send a very strong signal and would be a courageous step by a Minister whom I know has a got a long political career ahead of him—probably longer than mine. I would want him to be able to look back in some years’ time and say: “I did the right thing.” It is something that goes against the natural National Party grain—that is not a criticism; that is an observation—but we would look to a Minister who took a courageous step and said: “Yep. We want to really transform and change health and safety leadership and management in this country and we are going to build our structures from top to bottom to reflect that.” Changing the governance of WorkSafe New Zealand by ensuring genuine tripartism and by incorporating the social partners would do that. That would be a cause for celebration and great admiration. Naturally we support change because the change in this bill will be positive for the workers of New Zealand. The change in that governance would add to it.