Young Jonathan: Third Readings —Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Third Readings —[Sitting date: 27 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6279. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I am pleased to point out that even in this past year we have seen some dramatic improvements in the severe injury and loss of life in some of the industries that we would consider to be particularly high risk. One of those is forestry. We have also seen a significant reduction in workplace injury and fatalities in the area of agriculture. All of that goes to show us that even discussion around this subject has created a change of thinking and a change of practice which is essentially what the legislation arising from the Health and Safety Reform Bill is about: to change the way people think. It is not just about ticking boxes; it is about changing people’s attitudes their behaviours and their interactions. When I talked to the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum executive when they wanted to know where the bill was of course I could not tell them because it was with the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee but they conveyed to me that their bottom line the issue that they felt was incredibly important was worker engagement and participation. We have lost the message of that in this big debate just around health and safety reps.I know that health and safety reps are important. I am not denying that. When we have workplaces that have over 20 people the complexity of relationships and information and engagement tends to show us that having somebody coordinate is going to be beneficial. When there are high-risk industries with higher complexities and difficulties around managing the health and safety regime and issues then that person is going to be beneficial. But there are businesses and workplaces and there are sole traders where that position does need to be there in order to develop and have a successful and effective health and safety regime. It is important for us to understand that the most important element of this new regime is worker participation. It is the top-down bottom-up engagement between persons conducting a business or undertaking and the workforce and anybody who enters that workforce that ensures that across the board there is engagement understanding discussion decisions and the identifying of hazards and risks. That is the most important thing.When the previous speaker Iain Lees-Galloway said that the bill that came to the select committee back in March 2014—quite some time ago—was in great shape well I would probably disagree with that. I know that the issue that Labour has been particularly activated on is the issue around health and safety representatives. That is only one particular area of amendment this legislation has seen from the original piece of legislation. I like many members of this House have seen bills come to this place where especially in the second reading we have seen a commentary of all the changes attached to the bill. Most of those commentaries run for five or six pages; the commentary on this bill ran to 30 pages—30 pages of amendments and change. One of those amendments was around health and safety representation for those businesses with fewer than 20 employees that are low risk. So I would say that this bill came to this Parliament—yes and it was embraced and there is a strong commitment to it—quite raw. We needed the process of receiving many submissions—and over 105 oral submitters came to the select committee—over the space of probably a year because there was an election between the process of receiving this bill into the House and now this third reading. We listened to people. We did not always agree and certainly across the House we have not always agreed but there has been a lot that we have agreed on. There has been a lot that we have talked about and discussed I believe in good faith. We have adopted amendments into the legislation from the Opposition.It has not been political—Sue Moroney: That’s not true.JONATHAN YOUNG: Not as many as the Opposition would like—yes granted. But we have certainly done that.I would say that with the support of the officials—whom I believe did a great job and I want to acknowledge them here today—I believe that we have worked very very hard for the workforce and the public of New Zealand. I know we have been accused of watering down this and undermining that but I think with good faith we have certainly worked our best and our hardest to get a regime that is workable and that is going to work for every workplace and every size of company whether they are high risk or low risk. In regard to the classifications they are going to go out for consultation. I am sure there are going to be changes—I am sure there are going to be changes. They are not cast in iron. So for those sorts of concerns that people have—there is still opportunity for those to be reviewed. I would just like to say thank you very much to all members of the committee to my colleagues here and also to colleagues across the House. Thank you for the hard work that you have done in bringing this legislation to where it is now. Thank you.