Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Alderson: Construction Health and Safety Chief Executive on changes to scaffolding regulation

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Chris Alderson: Construction Health and Safety Chief Executive on changes to scaffolding regulation · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: Brook Van Valden wants to change up regulation around scaffolding,
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  Speaker 1: but health and safety experts say relaxed scaffolding rules could
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  Speaker 1: have cost us up to seventy lives in the past
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  Speaker 1: five years. Chris Alderson is chief executive of Construction, Health
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  Speaker 1: and Safety New Zealand's with me this morning. Hey Chris, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: how are you good? Thank you? What's the rule when
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  Speaker 1: do I need to put scaffolding up? If i'm would
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  Speaker 1: it ever happen on a single story house?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, there was regulations or guidance that came in
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  Speaker 2: around about twenty twelve, which I guess was the regulatory
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  Speaker 2: shift we saw back then that looked at scaffolding on
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  Speaker 2: single story houses. Now, you know, under our Health and
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  Speaker 2: Safety Work Act, you know, judges take guidance into account
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  Speaker 2: when they're looking at the test for reasonable practicability. So
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  Speaker 2: it kind of like shits the industry on that path
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  Speaker 2: from then. And look, there was a lot of questioning
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  Speaker 2: around that time. I remember it around you know, was
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  Speaker 2: this overreach? Was this over kilder? We barely need it?
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  Speaker 2: And there's been a few organizations that have had a
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  Speaker 2: look at it since then. I mean, brands did a
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  Speaker 2: report in twenty seventeen which looked at the effect of
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  Speaker 2: scaffolding and single story residential houses, and so I found
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  Speaker 2: that yes, you know, there was a cost increase, but
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  Speaker 2: actually there's a major safety improvement as well. And it's
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  Speaker 2: kind of we we've been since then, so we haven't
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  Speaker 2: really looked at it since twenty seventeen. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you go out and talk to good builders, smart builders,
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  Speaker 2: what they will tell you is that, hey, there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of benefits other than the safety stuff around scaffolded
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  Speaker 2: and these opportunities as well around productivity and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So, because I think for a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: that single story house example is one that's kind of obvious.
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  Speaker 1: Do you really need it? I mean would I guess
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  Speaker 1: the question is would people have died if we didn't
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  Speaker 1: have it?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Look our history of so all around the world,
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  Speaker 2: falling from height is the number one reason you get
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  Speaker 2: killed at work, all around the world, don't matter where
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  Speaker 2: you look, the US, Australia, the UK, except for one
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  Speaker 2: little place, and that's New Zealand. In New Zealand, it's
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  Speaker 2: not number one, which is interesting, right, And you know,
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  Speaker 2: when we look at all the fatalities, we have had
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  Speaker 2: a fulsome heighter around about six percent of them if
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  Speaker 2: you go to the UK twenty eight percent. To get
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  Speaker 2: to Australia round about fifteen percent on average. So you
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  Speaker 2: kind of go, well, there's there's a difference. So what
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  Speaker 2: we're trying to talk about here is trying to talk
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  Speaker 2: about something that didn't happen rather than did happen. Right,
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  Speaker 2: So all you can do is look at that sort
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  Speaker 2: of counterfactual and say, well, what do we do in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand that made our made us a little bit
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  Speaker 2: unusual and I think our you can really put our
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  Speaker 2: buildings you can put yeah, well maybe maybe our people
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  Speaker 2: are taller. I don't know, maybe gravity works differently in
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  Speaker 2: the door to hear this there, maybe you've had on it.
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  Speaker 1: So Chris, Chris, these changes the government says are out
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  Speaker 1: for consultation. You know, everyone will get a chance to
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  Speaker 1: have their say. You're saying, actually, it's working fine as
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  Speaker 1: it is.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm saying that, Look, if you're going to make
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  Speaker 2: a deregulatory move, then be really sure about your facts,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, we've all got opinions. We're all entitled
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  Speaker 2: to our opinions, but we're all not entitled to our
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  Speaker 2: own facts, and you've got to really be quite careful,
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  Speaker 2: particularly when you're walking into an obviously higher risk area
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  Speaker 2: where it does actually affect people's lives in the most
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  Speaker 2: serious way. You know, these aren't I mean of a
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  Speaker 2: flippant before, but you know there are. You know, I've
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  Speaker 2: had people on projects or a person on project that
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  Speaker 2: I ran, you know, fifteen years ago, the type from height.
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  Speaker 2: It's not something I'd wish on anybody.
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  Speaker 1: Chris, Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate your time this morning, Chris.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. Chris Alderson, Chief Executive of Construction, Health and
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  Speaker 1: Safety in New Zealand.
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