The recent release of the Safeguard state of the nation health and Safety survey raises some interesting questions on just how far we have come or in some case not progressed.

Napier, 20 April 2016  -  Business owners and senior managers must be more confident due to the fact that the responsibilities are more prescriptive and defined, they now have guidance instead of the subjective and non-prescriptive legislation they had to work with previously. This can only be a positive step in the right direction of H&S improvement

Someone once said that you should educate before you legislate.

As an independent health and safety advisor who has worked in the industry for 24 years, I too am a little bit sceptic as there has been twenty four years of resistance by 95% of NZ businesses to H&S. It’s a shame that it has taken the lives of 29 men to bring about the changes but dramatic events sometimes requires drastic action.

H&S in NZ has been in place as a compliance issue since 1992 and millions of dollars have been spent on the education process and information abounds on the WSNZ and the ACC web sites. There is no longer to make excuses that information is not available. I believe that this is one of the reasons why 78% are more optimistic about health and safety now starting to work.

It’s interesting to note from a number of postings on the Goggle Earth H&S Alerts of the comments stating that business in certain provinces are not prepared or aware of the changes to H&S, hello, where have they been?Is H&S improving, here in the province of Hawkes Bay I believe it is if all the calls for assistance are anything to go by?

Many businesses are now considering affirmative H&S management systems as an opportunity to improve their business rather than just to comply with the law. In fact many are now capitalising on this to gain contracts and a greater share of the market place.

H&S is now a key part of the selection criteria for all local body and larger businesses to do business with, so are the changes making a difference, they certainly are with my clients.  The government set a goal to reduce the fatality rate and the number of work place serious ham incidents by 25% by 2020. Is 2020 vision not hindsight?

Will the Government reach this goal considering 2020 is only 4 years away? I believe this is ambitious considering the H&S culture that still exists in NZ. The proof or success of the H&S pudding will be the measurement taken by business like Safeguard.

Change takes time but with the different attitude and approach now being taken by Worksafe NZ and the many hundreds of independent professional H&S advisors in the market place it can only improve for the betterment and safety of the NZ workers and for the NZ economy.

Gordon Anderson is the managing director of Hasmate Ltd of Napier. Since 1993 he has worked extensively in the area of health and safety as an adviser, systems development, auditing and management training. He works with a wide range of industries in Hawke's Bay and in other centres.