Even before the 2010 Pike River disaster, where 29 miners perished due to systemic safety failures, we’ve known our workplace safety record in New Zealand is a national disgrace. But instead of increasing protections, this government is slashing WorkSafe’s resources and watering down the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) 2015, all in the name of “business clarity.”
Let’s look at the numbers. New Zealand’s workplace fatality rate is appalling! Around 50-60 deaths annually, with 400-500 serious injuries and 750-900 deaths from work-related ill health. That’s roughly 1,000 deaths a year since Pike River, totalling 10,000 lives lost, plus 420,000 injuries. Compare this to Australia, where the fatality rate is 60% lower, or the UK, where it’s a staggering 500% lower, despite similar risk-management frameworks. Our injury rate? 1,200 per 100,000 workers, compared to Australia’s 899 and the UK’s 692. We’re not just lagging behind on workplace safety; we’re a global embarrassment.
The coalition’s response? Gut WorkSafe, our primary regulator, with 180 roles on the chopping block in the latest restructure, following 113 redundancies last year. This decimates expertise; health specialists, inspectors, and advisors who help businesses navigate safety obligations. Instead of strengthening enforcement, the government’s pushing “flexible” regulations, letting businesses off the hook for "proactive" risk management. There’s no question that the HSWA 2025 reforms are more free-market deregulation dogma, prioritising profit over people.
Today, RNZ reported:
The government is shifting its work and safety regulator's priorities from enforcement to advice, saying this will help address concerns about underfunding and a "culture of fear".
First steps include updating more than 50 guidance documents and launching the hotline - announced in March - for reporting excessive road cones.
The restructure goes much deeper than that, though, with Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden issuing a new letter of expectations, rearranging the regulator's finances and redefining its main purpose in legislation.
The government has cut $2.2 million from the agency's funding since 2023 - a 1.6 percent cut from $141.1m to $138.9m - with heightened inflation over that time further increasing costs.
We also need to talk about New Zealand’s no-fault Accident Compensation Corporation system. While a lifeline for some injured workers who meet ACC's ever stricter criteria for cover, it's predominantly a get-out-of-jail-free card for unethical businesses. Unlike Australia, where targeted sector-specific safety measures have slashed accidents, our system lets negligent employers dodge accountability. Companies pay into ACC, but there’s no real sting for repeated safety failures, no punitive fines or mandatory audits to force change. This leaves high-risk industries like construction, agriculture, and forestry, where most fatalities occur, free to cut corners. Māori and Pasifika workers, disproportionately harmed, bear the brunt of this negligence...perhaps one of the reasons the ACT Party-led government is reducing workplace safety oversight.
The coalition’s austerity fetish and ACT’s neoliberal idiocy are driving this race to the bottom. Workers face rising workloads, stagnant wages, and now, weaker safety nets. We need more inspectors, better training, and enforceable regulations, not a return to the pre-Pike River days of employer self-management, which clearly failed spectacularly. New Zealand must adopt Australia’s proactive approach: real-time regulator feedback, sector-specific interventions, and hefty penalties for non-compliance.
This government’s priorities are clear…profits for the few over safety for the many. But what people need to realise is that every cut to WorkSafe, every softened rule, is a step toward more coffins. Kiwi workers deserve better. We need a system that holds dodgy bosses who cut corners to account, not one that lets them gamble with more worker’s lives.
