Health & Safety Reform in 2025 and 2026: Taking stock and looking forward

2025 was a big year for announcements about health and safety reform and 2026 will be even more significant as these start to come to fruition. We eagerly await the outcome of the Gibson High Court appeal and Police decisions on further charges in reaction to Pike.

Join NZISM Law Reform lead, Mike Cosman and CEO Jeff Sissons, for a year end wrap up of what's changed to date and what's coming down the pipeline next year including the Health and Safety Reform Bill, possible Corporate Manslaughter legislation and Election year predictions.

Your presenters:

Jeff Sissons

Jeff joined NZISM as CEO in January 2024, and cam from the Public Service Association, where he led their internal and external health and safety work. Prior to that, he worked in the Beehive as a senior advisor to various Ministers, most extensively the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety.

Jeff has also worked as a lawyer in private practice and as the General Counsel at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, where he was deeply involved in the health and safety reforms and campaigns led by the late Helen Kelly.

Jeff is a HASANZ scholarship recipient, and is at the tail end of his Postgraduate Diploma in Workplace Health and Safety at Victoria University.

Mike Cosman

Mike is a highly experienced risk and safety management specialist who has worked in this field for over 46 years as a regulator, manager, policy maker and consultant in the UK and for the past 22 years in New Zealand. He was a member of the Government Taskforce set up after the Pike River Mine disaster that helped shape the current legislative framework and of the Independent Forestry Safety Review.

As well as working with many public and private sector clients, he has been the external advisor to 12 boards and health and safety governance committees. He chaired the board of the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management for 8 years until mid 2025 and is the external advisor to the health and safety governance committees of Department of Conservation, HEB Construction, PACT Packaging NZ, Ernslaw One and is the independent chair of the National Health and Safety Committee for Southern Cross Healthcare.

Mike is called upon as an expert witness in several different jurisdictions including the District, Employment, High and Coroners Court, ERA, EPA and in civil matters.

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