0 August 2015 MEDIA STATEMENT

Government’s Health and Safety legislation a joke

Legislation that should have been designed to save Kiwi lives is instead a national joke, with worm farms and alpacas rated more risky than our most dangerous industries, Opposition Leader Andrew Little says.

“The Government has wasted years on this legislation then rushed out a bill that puts some of our most vulnerable workers at risk. Its absurd contradictions mean that cat breeding and worm farms are deemed high risk but cattle farms – where high numbers of workplace deaths occur – are not.

“National has put its own interests ahead of safety, excluding cattle farms despite there being more than 100 deaths in agriculture over the past five years.

“Meanwhile driving a school bus is considered less hazardous than driving a tourist bus. Collecting pine cones is high-hazard. Pruning trees is not.

“It’s overly complicated, ill thought out and rushed through to appease National Party backers, putting the lives of New Zealanders at risk.

“Business owners have to self-identify whether they fall into a category or whether they are exempt in a system that is so complicated, the Minister can’t explain it himself.

“This farce of a bill is the result of a promise John Key made to the families of the 29 men who died at Pike River in 2010. Instead of fixing New Zealand’s appalling rate of deaths at work this makes a mockery of that vow,” Andrew Little says.
ends

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