Beaumont Carol: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14596. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour): When I was last speaking I had just touched on clause 9 of the Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill about WorkSafe New Zealand’s main objective. I want to explore that and then look at clause 10 “WorkSafe New Zealand’s functions”. The main objective just to reiterate I think is quite a strong one: “WorkSafe New Zealand’s main objective is to promote and contribute to securing the health and safety of workers and workplaces.” That is an absolutely critical goal which every person in this Committee could agree upon I am absolutely sure.Then it goes on in this bill to talk about the functions of WorkSafe New Zealand. They are quite broad-reaching. It is a little unclear to a number of us why these provisions are similar but not as recommended by the royal commission itself. In clause 10 from paragraph (a) to paragraph (m) they go through a range of different elements that WorkSafe New Zealand would have to do to deliver on that objective. It includes a range of research for example and in paragraph (g) it states: “promote and support research education and training on or in workplace health and safety”. I think that is vitally important.One of the things I know from my own experience is that it is quite difficult sometimes to align the statistics that we collect at the moment to be really clear on what the trends are and to be able to break things down appropriately by different demographic groups. Are there differences between men and women in particular industries in terms of their health and safety outcomes etc etc.? I think that is quite an important provision there.There are also I think a number of interesting things. In paragraph (k) we have got “promote and co-ordinate the implementation of workplace health and safety initiatives by establishing partnerships or collaborating with other agencies or interested persons in a coherent efficient and effective way:”. I think that again makes a great deal of sense—that there is a range of people and agencies operating in this space rather than saying that WorkSafe New Zealand will necessarily do these things all by itself that it will collaborate with others that already have expertise and so on.Again I do really want to reiterate especially having just listened to the Minister and his explanation of clauses 7 and 8 that this broad range of functions to deliver on what is a good main objective would be so much stronger if this was driven by a board that was truly tripartite. It is such an easy thing to say that a board will have the perspective of employers or the perspective of workers. I think Sue Moroney perhaps pushing theparcel out a little in her explanation of that about who might be able to say they have perspectives of this or that—that is not the same as saying that these people will be representatives of bodies like the Council of Trade Unions which is the peak organisation for workers in this country and for trade union members. It does have expertise institutional knowledge and respect which have been obtained over many years of operation. So not only do those representatives then have that background but they also have a whole structure in which to seek feedback and ideas and information that is relevant to the work of the board of WorkSafe New Zealand.I do think that the Minister still has the opportunity to do something about this and my colleague Andrew Little has a Supplementary Order Paper that would deal with this issue. If the Minister is as clear and as committed as he says he is to ensuring that there is strong representation with people like Ross Wilson and nobody would have any question about the ability of somebody like Ross Wilson to be there as the Council of Trade Unions representative—[Interruption] Actually that is a very good point. I had forgotten that momentarily Ms Fenton. That is true. How could that have happened—someone with that degree of knowledge and expertise and commitment? So that is good anyway. Obviously the Minister on the other hand does understand. But he could easily represent the voice of workers through an institutional arrangement with representative organisations like the Council of Trade Unions.