NZISM News 8 July 2026

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill is now law. The various clumsy compromises and complex drafting are now ours to grapple with.

We will need to find a way to make the new definition of critical risk as easy as possible to understand. We will need to make the moral case for dealing with the harms that are outside of the definition.

Many other questions are yet to be resolved. We will need to understand what the exclusions from upstream and downstream duties will mean for supply chains. We will need to understand how safe harbour provisions work in practice.

Despite Minister van Velden’s fond imagining, consultants and lawyers will see significant new work as organisations come to grips with these changes. Employed health and safety people will too. I’m sceptical that much of this work will improve health and safety outcomes or reduce red or blue tape.

NZISM will be assisting WorkSafe to ensure that their guidance on the changes is as useful and practical as possible. We will also look to get leading experts to present to members on how to get ready for the changes. As a start, I would encourage you to sign up for Rob Mair’s workshop Making Sense of Critical Risk Management next week. And watch this space for more announcements.

While I hoped for better than the law we got and the lacklustre Parliamentary processes that passed it, I’m enormously proud of the work that we and others have done to argue for a better law and the things that actually matter to improve safety outcomes. It’s been a privilege to work alongside Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse of Stand with Pike, Mike Cosman and our own Law Reform Working Group, and the wider health and safety ecosystem.

Our work has had real consequences. The Bill was improved at Select Committee. New Zealand First has bought us more time by delaying the implementation to 1 April 2027.

I believe that Parliament can and should change their minds and change the law. The Labour Party, the Green Party, and Te Pati Māori have all indicated that they want to repeal these changes. New Zealand First want to either repeal or substantially change the law they have just voted for. Both the National and ACT Parties have indicated that they are open to making change (the day after they voted the law through without changes).

So we will plan with our friends across the health and safety community and we will push again for better. We will continue to put forward a vision of health and safety that will make things better for workers and businesses. We will continue to move forward and we will give you plenty of opportunities to join us.

Ngā mihi

Jeff Sissons

CEO NZISM