Update: New Zealand’s Health & Safety at Work Amendment Bill (Receiving Royal Assent)

Season 8Episode 5
Written By Megan Barrow

Risk! Engineers Talk Governance Podcast
Season 8, Episode 5

In this episode of Risk! Engineers Talk Governance, due diligence engineers Richard Robinson and Gaye Francis discuss New Zealand's Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill, which received Royal Assent on 9 July and commences 1 April 2027. 

They unpack the shift towards a focus on critical risks for small business and an expanded role for approved codes of practice, and question whether this makes the regime more prescriptive than the "reasonably practicable" standard intended. The conversation moves to a Wellington waterfront fatality case and the accountability questions it raises for local councils and their executives.

View the updated Act at https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/laws-and-regulations/acts/changes/understanding-the-changes-to-health-and-safety-law/

If you'd like us to cover a specific topic or have any feedback we'd love to hear from you. Email admin@r2a.com.au. For further information on Richard and Gaye's work with R2A, head to https://www.r2a.com.au.

Timestamps:

  • 00:00 – Introduction

  • 00:40 – NZ Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill receives Royal Assent (9 July), effect from 1 April 2027

  • 01:23 – Speed of the Bill through NZ Parliament compared to Australia

  • 01:53 – Key changes: focus on critical events for small business; expanded role of approved codes of practice

  • 02:34 – Tension between codes of practice as a "minimum standard" and the "reasonably practicable" objective

  • 03:16 – R2A's process for testing and documenting what's reasonable in the circumstances

  • 04:36 – Richard's two closing workshop questions, and using AI as a "watchdog" for critical issues

  • 05:16 – Richard's experiment running local AI models on Mac hardware

  • 06:15 – Controls evolve even when critical issues don't; AI as a possible future control or QA system

  • 06:56 – Port automation, wearable tracking tech, and phone-based hazard alerts

  • 08:04 – Recap: NZ's shift to criticality focus and increased use of codes of practice

  • 08:38 – Port of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson prosecution and its link to the new amendment

  • 09:13 – Case study: Wellington waterfront fatality (referred by NZ associate Frank Stocks)

  • 09:41 – Details of the incident and the coronial inquiry

  • 10:40 – Prior fatality two years earlier and unimplemented lighting/edge-protection recommendations

  • 11:08 – Wellington council rejecting the recommendations

  • 12:04 – Who bears liability — councillors vs council executive

  • 12:50 – Parallel with Owners Corporation committees and volunteer liability in Australia

  • 14:15 – Debate: should businesses be expected to know all their hazards?

  • 14:49 – Prescriptive vs "reasonably practicable" regimes, and why WA delayed its own WHS Act

  • 15:44 – Will Australia follow New Zealand's more prescriptive approach?

  • 17:04 – Which legislation will apply if the Wellington case proceeds to prosecution

  • 17:36 – Close

Megan Barrow
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