24 August 2004

Strategy maps the future of safe and healthy work

A proposed strategy for achieving long-term health and safety in the workplace, is being released for public comment, Associate Labour Minister Ruth Dyson announced today.

The draft Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 sets out proposals across all sectors with specific goals looking ahead to the year 2015 and beyond.

“The strategy looks at the big picture of healthy working lives. Getting the strategy together has involved hard work and hard thinking by all the groups involved, from industry and union representatives to government agencies such as OSH and ACC.

“This high level strategy will be backed up with an implementation plan that translates the strategic goals into practical steps.

“As well as agreeing on the destination, the Strategy maps the pathways to get there. The result will be safer, healthier and more productive working lives.”

“The benefits of good workplace health and safety reach beyond the office, the factory or the farm. An investment in the health and safety of workers benefits industry, families and communities: it’s good for people, and it’s good for business. We need the strategy to provide leadership for a diverse workforce sector and to provide a common vision for everyone involved,” Ruth Dyson said.

The proposed strategy is out for public comment until the end of October. It is available online at: www.whss.govt.nz.

People wanting to comment on the Strategy can email whss@dol.govt.nz or call the Department of Labour infoline on 0800 20 90 20.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>