Pg1of 3 Hon Brooke van Velden MP Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Monday, 28th October 2024 Dear Minister, Priorities for health and safety reform Thank you for prioritising improvement to New Zealand’s health and safety system. We share your desire for New Zealand to have the best possible health and safety system and to improve health and safety outcomes for workers while minimising unnecessary confusion and costs. The value of improving health and safety outcomes is profound. Many of us have worked with people who suffered permanent disability from their work, or the families of workers who never came home, and we work to prevent this happening to other families and communities. This includes the burden of work-related diseases which are fifteen times more likely to kill a worker than an accident. Good health and safety is of significant benefit for business. The Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum conservatively estimates the cost of workplace illness and injury in New Zealand at $4.9 billion per year. Well-targeted investment in health and safety will pay dividends to businesses, communities, and the country. Your first principles review has prompted us to consider what we think is working and what we think needs improvement in the health and safety system. We have come together as representatives of businesses, workers, and health and safety experts to see whether we have a shared view of what would improve the system and meet your goals. We have set ourselves the challenge of making three joint recommendations to the Government. The three recommendations that we urge the Government to consider are: ►Better system leadership and coordination. ►Improving and investing in WorkSafe. ►Better regulations and guidance. Our view is that the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is fundamentally fit for purpose, though we will work constructively with you and your officials to identify improvements. Better leadership and coordination New Zealand’s Robens-model health and safety model is premised on the idea that businesses, workers and Government should work closely together to improve the system. We do a poor job of this, and it hurts our health and safety performance. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requires the Government to set out the overall direction in improving the health and safety of workers. While the previous Government did publish a Strategy in 2018, it would be fair to say that it has remained directionless due to that Government’s failure to put in place an action plan to deliver and measure outcomes. Strategy without implementation is a wish rather than a plan.