Brooke van Velden: Minister of Workplace Relations on the changes to WorkSafe, road cone tipline

The Workplace Relations Minister hopes WorkSafe's incoming culture shift will show they're there to help, not hurt.  

The Government's instructed the regulator to move away from enforcement and engage early to support risk management. 

It starts with today's opening of the road cone hotline. 

Minister Brooke van Velden told Mike Hosking businesses shouldn't have to sweat the small stuff.  

She says there's a culture of over-compliance and too much paperwork, instead of a focus on the risk of death or serious injury. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So more change coming to the safety rules that WorkSafe
apparently is inconsistent, so a reset is needed. The Minister
for Workplace Relations and Safety, Brook Ben Belden's with us
very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Can you just change so you're moving from enforcement to
advisory so we're here to help. Can you actually just
do that by instruction or does it need more than that?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, there are a lot of people out there who
do want to keep their workers safe. That's what we
heard through the road show. But secondly they said, but
we don't know where to go to actually get some guidance.
And we're talking about people who are really time poor
and resource poor who are also trying to figure out
how to deal with payroll and all of how you
keep your business afloat in the modern economy. And we

(00:45):
know that there is a huge fear from businesses about
work safe coming into their shop or to their work site,
and so you're doing the wrong thing. Was going to
prosecute you. My hope here is that we can change
the culture of work safe away from how I'm here
to hurt you to how I'm here to actually help you.
And I know that sounds a bit difficult when you're

(01:06):
dealing with a regulator. But there are old guidance documents
that they're pulling from the website and reassuring new guidance.
But ultimately, I want people to know that there is
one central place to go if they are time poor
and they need to know how do I practically keep
my workers safe on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Will I be able to know? First of all, this
requires some law change. Legislations will be in by when
the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
My hope is that we will have legislation through next year.
But we're focusing on critical risk. So this is the
important point that we're changing the focus of worker health
and safety to focusing on the critical risks, those things
that can cause death and serious injury. And at the
same time, I'm changing the focus of work safe to
care about death and serious injury as well, and not

(01:55):
sweating the small stuff because we've had a culture of
too much overcompliance, ticking all the boxes, trying to get
all of the paperwork done, rather than focusing on do
I actually do anything in my workplace that could cause
death or serious injury? And are we doing that correctly.
So I'm saying to everybody out there let's not sweet

(02:15):
the small stuff. Let's focus on those death and serious
injury activities, and let's have work Safe going on site
providing more upfront guidance so that they're here to help
rather than having too much of the stick without that
upfront guard.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well, let's hope you can achieve it that. Where's the
road cone tip line fit into all of this?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
So the road cone tip line is really just a
pilot of that culture change and shift within WorkSafe, because
we know that that's the main work site that most
New Zealanders see if they're not dealing with critical risks.
When you're taking your kids to school or you're going
to work, you're thinking, why on Earth am I seeing
so many pesky road cones and are they actually keeping
people safe? I want to ensure that in the future,

(02:56):
when people are seeing road cones, they know they're therefore
genuine and safety risk. And so this is what we're
getting the inspectors, m ZTA work Safe, the road controlling
Authority than contractors on board with so that we've got
a real program of work to reduce pesky road cones.
So what we're actually seeing is focused on worker safety.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Okay, well, let's hope it goes well. That's digital. By
the way, it's not a phone call. It's not an
O eight hundred. I've seen too many cones. It's digital.
Brookvand Build, Minister for Workplace and Safety Relations, ran into
the very problem this morning. I don't have time to
boil you with it, but I've involved me backing down
a street at two thirty in the morning. The whole
thing was a complete cluster. For more from the Mic
Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks it'd be from

(03:38):
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.