Safety Science 120 | Safety Science 120

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Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/safety
The evolution of the OHS profession in New Zealand
Christopher Peace a,b,⁎, Felicity Lammc , Greg Dearsly d , Helen Parkese
a Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
b Risk Management Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand
c Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
d National Manager, NZISM, PO Box 128 532, Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand
e Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
1. Introduction
This article examines the evolution of the OHS profession in
Aotearoa New Zealand (hereafter New Zealand) and we argue that
development of a profession cannot be considered in isolation at one
moment in time. We show that an occupational group develops as a
result of historical contextual issues that shape how stakeholders per-
ceive the need for, status, and role of that group, and whether it should
be seen as a distinct trade or a profession. We also provide a working
definition of “a profession” and outline the early development of New
Zealand’s generalist OHS professions in New Zealand. We conclude
with a discussion of the key themes and future challenges facing the
OHS profession in New Zealand. We commence, however, with a brief
explanation of the methodology applied in this exercise.
1.1. Methodology
Using a literature review covering 1840–2018, personal enquiries,
our own experiences spanning 40 years, and experiences of others, we
trace key external and internal socioeconomic and legislative influences
that helped delay and then shape the development of OHS as an oc-
cupation and, more recently, a profession, in New Zealand.
We use a timeline (Fig. 1) to connect these events with changes in
legislation and socioeconomics and the geography of New Zealand to
illustrate how these factors influenced the development of safety, oc-
cupational health and of the OHS profession. The timeline includes
some key dates from the UK and elsewhere that act as reference points.
Geoffrey Palmer (1998), an ex-Prime Minister, noted:
Sometimes it does us a power of good to remind ourselves that we live on
two volcanic rocks where two tectonic plates meet, in a somewhat lonely
stretch of windswept ocean just above the Roaring Forties. If you want
drama – you’ve come to the right place.
Such natural hazards can affect safety generally and occupational
health and safety specifically in New Zealand – an issue we return to.
We describe changes that followed one man-made and one natural
disaster in 2010 that were a turning point in societal safety and OHS
and then describe the OHS professions in New Zealand as at mid-2019.
Statistics for workplace deaths, injuries and disease show that oc-
cupational disease is the dominant case of deaths in New Zealand. We
therefore note that occupational health and safety is a recent adaptation
of occupational safety and health to place greater emphasis on occu-
pational health. This follows the 1995 objectives for occupational
health enunciated by the World Health Organization and International
Labour Organization:
The promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental
and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention
amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working
conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks
resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of
the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological
and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize: the adaptation of
work to man and of each man to his job.
Definition of the term “profession” has been the subject of some
debate and so we start with a brief consideration of its meaning. The
article then builds from early settlement of New Zealand, through the
20th century, and into the 21st century, weaving in events and changes
that shaped OHS over the last 160 years. We conclude with a discussion
of work in progress and optimism that deaths of 29 men in one mining
disaster may result in greater collaboration between the OHS profes-
sions and avoidance of further such disasters.
1.2. What is a profession?
Saks (2012) provides an overview of the definition of a “profession”,
starting in the 1950s and 1960 s with the taxonomic approach centred
on knowledge and expertise and that distinguished a given profession
from other professions. Characteristics were held to include: playing a
positive part in the community; codes of conduct; altruism; rationality
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.07.005
Received 19 September 2018; Received in revised form 23 June 2019; Accepted 9 July 2019
⁎ Corresponding author at: Victoria Business School, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand.
E-mail addresses: christopher.peace@vuw.ac.nz, chris.peace@riskmgmt.co.nz (C. Peace), felicity.lamm@aut.ac.nz (F. Lamm),
nationalmanager@nzism.org (G. Dearsly), helen.parkes@vuw.ac.nz (H. Parkes).
Safety Science 120 (2019) 254–262
0925-7535/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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