Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mike Cosman: Institute of Safety Management Chair on the Government reforming health and safety

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Mike Cosman: Institute of Safety Management Chair on the Government reforming health and safety · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The government's announced less tick box health than safety activities
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and there's no longer a need to report minor events.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: So the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management chair Mike
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  Speaker 1: Cosmon is with me, Hello, Mike, morning, Andrew. So are
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there any risks in this for our health and safety
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: in the workplace?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? I think there are, But more importantly, I think
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  Speaker 2: there's missed opportunities. So a number of the things that
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the government has sort of painted as problems I think
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: are largely imaginary. So there's no requirement to report minor
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: injuries at the moment, there's no requirement to have signs
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: up saying hold the handrail or hot water on the
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: hot water tap. So I think it's created a bit
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  Speaker 2: of a myth, and then it's congratulating itself for cracking
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  Speaker 2: that myth, whereas it's not really addressing the things that
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: are killing and injuring workers all around the country, you know,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: every day.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: So you said they missed an opportunity? What are they
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: missed other than what would you sayest?
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Well, So the key thing is that we've got industries
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  Speaker 2: that we know are really has this. So this morning
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: I'm going off to visit some forestry workers. There's nothing
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: in here that's going to improve safety in the forestry
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  Speaker 2: industry or with any of our other high risk sectors
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  Speaker 2: like agriculture and construction and manufacturing. In fact, it's going
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  Speaker 2: to divert work face attention away from those priorities to
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: manning the Cones hotline. So all the talk is about
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: reducing the cost of compliance, but there's nothing in here
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  Speaker 2: which actually says how we're going to improve worker safety,
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  Speaker 2: which is really at the heart of what I believe
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  Speaker 2: we should be focusing on.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, I have an example, because Book van Velden
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  Speaker 1: gave this example and her press release yesterday, and she see,
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  Speaker 1: for example, a small clothing shop would still need to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: provide first aid, emergency plans and basic facilities such as
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: suitable lighting, but wouldn't have to need to do a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: psychosocial hand policy. Was he correct? Is that a good example?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: They don't have to do one anyway unless they are
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: particularly at risk. So if you were a corner dairy
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: or a jewelry that's robbed three times, and your staff
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: are at risk of both physical and mental harm because
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of something that their rises through work, then you wouldn't
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  Speaker 2: just need a policy, but you'd actually need to support
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  Speaker 2: your workers who might be afraid to come to work
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  Speaker 2: and concerned about the risks. So no, I think that
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  Speaker 2: again is a misnowner. There's very little that actually is
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  Speaker 2: required to be written down in law, but often people
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: get this idea that they have to do it because
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of this mythical threat from work Safe or whatever. So
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: I think fundamentally the problem is that we lack current,
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  Speaker 2: easy to access, up to date guidance that tells people
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  Speaker 2: in simple terms what it is they do need to
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  Speaker 2: do and what they don't need to do, and that's
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: been recognized for over ten years that there's a massive gap.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Work Safe themselves say that they've got hundreds of pieces
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  Speaker 2: of guidance that are out of date and they don't
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  Speaker 2: have the resources to fix them.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Mike, I thank you so much for your expertise. Today,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: there's my Cosmin from the Institute of Safety Management.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:05
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• 3:08
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