Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Francois Barton: Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum CEO on the cost of workplace harm to New Zealand

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Francois Barton: Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum CEO on the cost of workplace harm to New Zealand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Workplace harm going down the annual state of the thriving
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: nation reports his workplace harm cost five and a half
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: billion bucks last year injury work claims down 28 percent
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: over the past decade you are still 1.4 times more
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: likely to die at work than you are in australia
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  Speaker 1: 3.4 times more likely than in great britain francois barton
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  Speaker 1: the business leaders health and safety forum chief executive with
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  Speaker 1: me this morning francois.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning good morning ryan with the.
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  Speaker 1: The death thing is that because of forestry and our
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  Speaker 1: roads what's the difference there.
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  Speaker 2: In terms of with UK and Australia? Yeah. Yeah, look,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think in short, it's more expensive in
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  Speaker 2: those countries when we get safety wrong in Great Britain
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  Speaker 2: and Australia. There are much clearer signals, I think, to
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  Speaker 2: businesses and workers alike from the regulatory system, the insurance system.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: There's obviously a different sort of industrial makeup over there.
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  Speaker 2: So it can sound a little brutal, but in essence,
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  Speaker 2: it's cheaper to injure and hurt people in New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: than some of these other countries. But more importantly, there's
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  Speaker 2: also more work being done in a lot of these places,
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  Speaker 2: I think, on how do we get it right. So skills,
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  Speaker 2: investment in technology, sort of more aligned signals both across
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  Speaker 2: the regulatory system but also with productivity drivers.
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  Speaker 1: The deaths we do have, what industries are they in generally?
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  Speaker 2: Well, probably not surprising for a lot of people in
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  Speaker 2: terms of where our acute fatality sits. Obviously, construction, farming... manufacturing,
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  Speaker 2: the primary industries are the areas in transport and logistics
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  Speaker 2: as well. But I mean, I think forestry is a
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  Speaker 2: really good example of why I still have optimism for
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  Speaker 2: how New Zealand can actually look to sort of bring
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  Speaker 2: that really significant drag on our economy, $ 5. 5 billion. It
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  Speaker 2: was 5.4 10 years ago in today's dollars. And we
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: could take a billion off that if we could catch
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  Speaker 2: up with Australia. I mean, where forestry was 10 years ago,
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  Speaker 2: for those that remember 2013, 10 fatalities, They didn't get
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  Speaker 2: safer simply by wearing safer helmets and learning how to
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  Speaker 2: cut trees down with a chainsaw better. They have transformed
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  Speaker 2: how trees get felled and harvested in that sector over
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  Speaker 2: the last decade. machinery, mechanisation, longer contract arrangements to foster
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  Speaker 2: better investment. So that's not safer. That's safer and more productive.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's the blueprint we need to encourage
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  Speaker 2: more of.
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  Speaker 1: Are we doing more? Do we have riskier industries which
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  Speaker 1: would therefore push our rate up? Or are we doing
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  Speaker 1: the same things but doing them worse?
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  Speaker 2: I think, obviously, the nature of New Zealand's primary industry
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  Speaker 2: and the makeup has an impact on that comparison. But
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  Speaker 2: You know, the UK, they build big things there. They
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  Speaker 2: have farming and forestry. Australia is certainly not a country
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  Speaker 2: of office workers alone. So I think it's important we
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  Speaker 2: look at, yeah, look, industry makeup matters, but really across
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  Speaker 2: the board internationally. Look, of the 25 OECD countries that
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  Speaker 2: are richer than us, 20 of those 25 kill fewer
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  Speaker 2: people than we do. So I think the blueprint for
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  Speaker 2: safety isn't more helmets, hivers, and checklists. It's how do
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  Speaker 2: we change the work? And, you know, what makes me
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  Speaker 2: optimistic is, you know, across the business leaders, health and
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  Speaker 2: safety forums, 450-odd chief executive members, we've got world-class organisations
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  Speaker 2: in New Zealand doing some of that work. The challenge
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  Speaker 2: is how do we scale them? How do we get
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  Speaker 2: more New Zealand businesses doing, you know, looking at changing
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  Speaker 2: the work, not just trying to change the worker? All right.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Francois Barton, business leaders, health and safety forum, chief executive.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 3:33
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