Sharples Pita: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 November 2013. Volume:695;Page:14892. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Māori Party—Tāmaki Makaurau) to theMinister of Labour: What is he doing to improve industry standards and to resource safety inspectors appropriately in order to respond to analysis from the Chief Coroner that the forestry sector has the nation’s highest rate of workplace injury deaths?Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Labour): I thank the Minister for the question. This Government released theApproved Code of Practice for Safety and Health in Forestry Operations in December last year which clearly lays out what is expected of industry. In August I announced the Working Safer reform package which will see significantly increased funding for workplace health and safety and will especially target high-risk industries like forestry on an operational level as an example. I am advised that in the past 10 weeks alone inspectors have carried out 135 workplace assessments across logging operations nationwide and this proactive enforcement work is continuing.Hon Dr Pita Sharples: In addition what immediate initiatives has the Minister put in place on the ground to address safety standards in the forestry industry given that188 serious harm notifications were made last year—the highest number in the last 5 years?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: There are a number of initiatives but I think that probably the most significant on the ground as the Minister has said is the one where inspectors are going to every single forestry operation in the country—as I say 135 so far. By the time that is finished—and those inspectors are doing it with some pace—it will be some 300 and there has been a range of enforcement actions taken already such as written warnings and infringement notices and in some cases actually closing down the operations for safety reasons.Hon Dr Pita Sharples: Has the Minister received any feedback from the families who have lost loved ones in forestry accidents on what they recommend is needed to stem the tide of fatalities in the forestry sector?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Yes I have had conversations by telephone in my constituent office with whānau members of people who have passed away through forestry and the message they give me loud and clear is that they want action and that I think is what this Government is delivering through the approved code of practice through visiting every forestry contracting operation and through WorkSafe New Zealand which starts next month and is receiving significantly more funding to deal with high-hazard industries such as importantly forestry.Darien Fenton: How can he insist that his approved code of practice is adequate when the sixth forestry worker killed this year was working in the pitch black of night invisible to workmates and the approved code of practice says only that “Where night work is required the employer shall ensure that the level of illumination does not cause a hazard.”?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I think the approved code of practice is necessary but not sufficient and as I have made very clear there is quite a number of other things we are doing. I think what is confirmed by the coroner’s case study on forestry which Pita Sharples has referred to is that actually the things that are the focus of that approved code of practice—tree-felling and breaking out which contribute to a significant number of these fatalities—are the big issues and are what as I say the approved code of practice focuses squarely on.