Lees-Galloway IainHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Labour Party to oppose the motion and to encourage other members of the House to follow the recommendation of the Education and Workforce Committee that this bill should not progress. I want to acknowledge all members of the select committee. I don't get to participate in the select committee these days but I want to acknowledge all the members and the chair Parmjeet Parmar for their work in considering this legislation and hearing the submissions. I understand that the select committee received 34 written submissions of which eight were in favour four were neutral and 22 were opposed and amongst many of those submissions in opposition to this bill were voluntary organisations and umbrella organisations that represent a large number of small voluntary organisations across the country. The overwhelming message that submitters wanted Parliament to hear was that with the right support with the right tools and with the right education all workplaces whether they be businesses for profit whether they be large NGOs or whether they be small voluntary organisations should be able to operate and can operate under the auspices of the Health and Safety at Work Act.In fact many submitters said they found that the rigour and the opportunity to learn more about their obligations under the Act made them more effective employers made them more effective as voluntary organisations and gave them an opportunity to provide a safe working environment for everybody that they were responsible for whether they were paid employees or whether they were volunteers. So I think we as a Parliament should listen closely to those submitters but I also think that this bill is fundamentally flawed because it is based on a flawed premise which is that health and safety is onerous that it is compliance-driven and that it is about ticking boxes when it is absolutely not that at all. It is about creating a culture that encourages people to speak up that encourages people to identify hazards to identify risks and to encourage employers and people who are in charge of workplaces whether they be profitable businesses or whether they be volunteer organisations to take all reasonable and practicable steps to keep everybody who they are responsible for safe in the workplace. It also encourages everybody in that workplace—workers volunteers contractors—to take responsibility for the safety of themselves and the safety of others that they are working alongside.So the premise of this amendment bill is flawed but even worse than that it suggests that the Act itself is flawed and I would be very interested to know what the Hon Michael Woodhouse thinks about that. The Hon Michael Woodhouse was the Minister in charge of the principal Act that this bill seeks to amend when it was passed through Parliament and I want to acknowledge the work that he did because this is an important piece of legislation. It's not perfect and I'll possibly come to some of the imperfections later on in my contribution this evening but it is fundamentally a good piece of legislation and it reflects where modern thinking throughout developed nations is at on health and safety. This amendment bill suggests that it's flawed because it suggests that it cannot apply to small voluntary organisations. The language that I heard used in the first reading debate is that health and safety obligations are onerous and difficult for small organisations to comply with which suggests to me that the National Party may even be wondering if they think this is applicable to small businesses. I think that's a shame because they did good work in Government seeing this legislation through and now to see them turn around the moment they get into Opposition and start playing politics with what is such an important piece of legislation frankly disappoints me. I know that the Hon Michael Woodhouse is better than that; I hope that his colleagues can realise that they ought to behave in a better fashion as well.One of the concerns that I expressed during the first reading and it continues to be a concern of mine is that this bill sends precisely the wrong message at precisely the wrong time. We have made good progress as a nation on health and safety since the wake-up call that was the tragedy at Pike River. We made good progress because everybody suddenly returned their focus to health and safety in the workplace and realised that New Zealand needed a new approach to health and safety. However the latest data tells us that between 2016 and 2017 we are seeing a plateauing. We are seeing the fall in injury and death rates in the workplace starting to level out—we're not seeing the progress on those statistics that we saw in the years after Pike River—and we are seeing a change in attitudes. People are starting to lose their focus again. This is precisely the time where we as a Parliament need to show leadership and remind everybody in New Zealand that we must not lose focus. In fact there is an awful lot more work to be done. We have made progress but we are still a very very long way behind other developed nations such as Australia such as the UK and such as many European nations. We kill and maim far too many people in our workplaces in New Zealand and this bill sends the wrong message at the wrong time.Now I acknowledge that the Health and Safety at Work Act is not perfect. Every single one of the parties that are now in Government expressed reservations about it when we were in Opposition. We could like the member in charge of this bill perhaps try and make amendments to this Act even though it is still new even though businesses employers workplaces NGOs and volunteer organisations are still coming to grips with it letting it bed in. I think that's the wrong approach. We have signalled—I have signalled as Minister—that we will undertake a review of the Act in 2020. That will be timely; the Australian Government have just completed a review of their model legislation upon which New Zealand's legislation is based. The report from that review is a very useful document and it will inform our review of the legislation but now is not the time to create more uncertainty for those employers those persons conducting a business or undertaking those workers and those volunteers who are getting used to the new legislation and putting it into operation at the front line.Likewise the work of completing the regulations or improving the regulations that give effect to this legislation has not been completed. That work needs to be allowed to continue and we need to see the Act in operation before we rush to judgment about what changes might need to be made to it. So I encourage the member and her party to engage positively when it comes time to review this legislation and acknowledge that New Zealand does need robust health and safety legislation that puts workers at the centre and helps to create the culture that we need.To that effect late last year the Government published the Health and Safety at Work Strategy which sets out the priorities for this Government over the next 10 years. This is something that is required in the Act and we saw that through at the end of last year. It has two overriding priorities: one that we have to focus on what will make the biggest impact to reduce harm. That's not about compliance that's not about ticking boxes that's not about paperwork; that is about looking in your workplace and making relevant changes in the workplace that will reduce the risks and hazards that exist in the workplace. It has a focus on work-related health including mental health—those workplaces with the greatest need sectors with the highest harm and small businesses; workers with the greatest need: Māori and other workers at greatest risk—and it also makes as a priority building everyone's capability to do health and safety well. That as I say was a strong message that we heard from submitters that we do need to encourage leaders at all levels to integrate health and safety into their work and enable workers to be represented engaged and to participate.Members this is not the time for this legislation. This is the time to redouble our efforts to ensure that more of our working people and our volunteers go home at the end of the day in the same state and health as when they started this day. I encourage members to vote this bill down.