Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sonya Rockhouse: Pike River Campaigner on New Zealand First's querying amendments to the Health and Safety at Work Act

Transcript

Sonya Rockhouse: Pike River Campaigner on New Zealand First's querying amendments to the Health and Safety at Work Act · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So there was a bit of a bit of a
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: scrap over the Your Health and Safety Reform over the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: last day or so. Brook van Velden's accused Winston Peters
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of last minute politicking. New Zealand first threatened to withhold
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: support for the bill, and then Winston called it a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: dead bill. The sticking point is proposed changes to parts
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of the post Pike River Health and safety rules and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: amid pressure from victim's family. So which joined by Sonya Rockhouse,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: it's my great pleasure to welcome you to the program.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Pike River campaigner. Hello, Sonya, Hello, How are you good?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: How are you feeling about this? To and fro of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Winston Peters and all this politicking.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: A little bit disappointed, to be fair, because the day
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: before he didn't agree with the bill under its present form,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and so we sort of went away thinking, you know,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: feeling quite positive. And then the retort was a little
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: bit different, and he even didn't interview that night that
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: we listened to it, and you know, it made us
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: feel even more positive. And then the next day something
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: must have happened overnight and that then his rhetoric had
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: sort of changed a little bit.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: He came down and said it was dead in the water.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: He must have got a little bit of the pressure.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: But now he's also saying if he if he gets
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: into the next government, he'll reverse the bill. Do you
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: trust if you think he says.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, we sort of have to really we don't.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: You know, when when Park River first happened, he's the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: one that stuck his head up and said that, you know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: it would be his bottom line to help us and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: get back into the drift. It should have if it
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: was safe to do so. So he has shown us
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: that he can, you know, he can follow through with
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: what he says. But I think that he's been tapped
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: on the shoulder by somebody and said, you.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Know, okay, that's Winston. Let's not worry about that right now.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Brook van Velden said on Tuesday that consultation with the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: unions and businesses and workers revealed they overwhelmingly felt the
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: law as it stands is too complicated and needs simplifying.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: And she said, no, this is not going to cause
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: widespread accidents, but you're against it?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Why because it will? I mean even acc has said that,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you know, if this happens, then it's possible that another
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: pike River could happen and we don't want that in
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: any way, shape or form. So it means that small businesses,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: the rules for them are going to be different for
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: the rules to big business. So if a small business
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: has to go on to the site of where a
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: big business is, there are different rules for different different people.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So it's going to complicate it more. Number one and
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: number two, she didn't when she was talking in the
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Select Committee. She never once mentioned the workers. It was
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: all about this us and how stress they were about
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: having to adhere to the health and safety laws. And
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you know, as far as Anna and I are concerned,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: if they're doing the right thing, they've got nothing to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: stress about.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Good said, Good said, well said, and good to hear
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: from you, and I thank you so much for your
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: time today, Sonyo rockout Pike River campaigner. For more from
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to News Talks
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: at b from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.