Roche Denise: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2960. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green):I rise to take a call in this debate on services for business and I am going to direct my remarks to WorkSafe New Zealand. Today is Workers’ Memorial Day so it is a good time to reflect and assess whether our industrial relations framework and the mechanisms that the Government has to support healthy and safe workplaces are fit for purpose.Over the last 5 years 287 workers went to work and did not come home. Last year in New Zealand 47 people died at work and that was down from 2013 when 57 people were killed. It is a terrible reminder of what can happen when people go to work and they do not come back. In the last year we have already had 10 workplace fatalities. These figures are provided by WorkSafe New Zealand. It says that the actual death toll could be higher because workers who are killed on the road in aviation accidents or on the sea are investigated by Maritime New Zealand the Civil Aviation Authority and the police. Each death is a personal tragedy.Today I went to Canterbury for the commemoration of Workers’ Memorial Day there which was a very heartfelt and sad occasion. It was today that we remembered the death of Lyttelton Port worker Brad Fletcher and the deaths of the two Work and Income workers Peggy Noble and Susan Cleveland. These are the people behind the statistics. The grief that their families and friends feel is raw and it is real.As well as the social costs there is the economic cost. WorkSafe New Zealand suggests that the cost of the death rate is a conservative $3.5 billion each year. Over the last 5 years there were nearly 28000 serious harm incidents reported—that is people who have been hurt seriously at work—and it estimates that that is about just under 6000 people per year. On top of that it says that there are between 600 and 900 people who die every year from diseases that were caused by long-term exposure to harmful influences.Our health and safety record is nothing to be proud of. A New Zealand worker is twice as likely to be killed on the job as an Australian worker and four times as likely to be killed on the job as a worker from the UK. This is not because the work is different. The work is the same. It is just that the culture is different the laws are different and I have to say the industrial relations framework is also different.I acknowledge that there is legislation in front of the House at the moment that reforms the health and safety laws and I am hopeful that that law will introduce more emphasis on employers on corporate bodies and on owners to take responsibility for safety on the job. However I remain convinced that little will change unless workers themselves are empowered to be safe at work and to be able to speak up about potential risks and hazards.Workers who work in a place with higher workplace democracy have better health and safety records because they are not afraid to speak up about the hazards or the risks that are present on the job. But sadly this Government undermines health and safety practice that is good by creating an industrial relations environment that pits worker against worker and creates a workplace climate of fear. It has done that through the introduction of youth rates the 90-day fire-at-will legislation and the changes to the Employment Relations Act that make it harder for workers to join a union or to negotiate collectively. A poor health and safety culture thrives when workers are insecure about their jobs and when precarious work and zero-hour contracts mean that they are not going to kick up a fuss about what is going on in the job in case they do not get rostered back on again.We know and we have seen it time and time again that workplaces with high union membership and good workplace democracy are safer workplaces and we just have to compare the Huntly mine with the Pike River mine and what happened there. I do want to acknowledge the sterling job that WorkSafe New Zealand is doing. Thank you.