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Speaker 1: New reporting to health and safety incidents are costing US

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Speaker 1: four point nine billion dollars a year. They claim nearly

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Speaker 1: half of us are affected by workplace incidents each year.

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Speaker 1: That's a weird one, isn't it. Business Leaders Health and

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Speaker 1: Safety Foruming Executive director Francois Button's with us on this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Fun fact number one that blew me away this morning.

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Speaker 1: Half of us have some sort of accident in the workplace.

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Speaker 1: How's that possible? What's wrong with us?

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Speaker 2: Wow? I think it's a challenge that we've been asking

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Speaker 2: ourselves as a country, I think now for twenty years bike,

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Speaker 2: because I think that's the shocking thing. I think our

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Speaker 2: performance around how we look after our people at work

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Speaker 2: does cause concern.

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Speaker 1: Is it all the same sort of industries you would

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Speaker 1: expect construction, science, mechanics, all that sort of stuff or not?

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Speaker 2: Well? I mean, what is frustrating as we end up

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Speaker 2: with these predictable surprises that forestry, agriculture, construction, and manufacturing,

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Speaker 2: transport logistics are the six is where we have high

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Speaker 2: risk activity, so they do continue to be at the

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Speaker 2: top of our high injury and papality rates.

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Speaker 1: How do you link that into productivity in what productivity?

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Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, if you fall out of a tree

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Speaker 1: and you break your leg, you're not working anymore. So

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Speaker 1: that's a lack of productivity. But are they completely separate

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Speaker 1: things or not.

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Speaker 2: No, they're very very closely correlated. I mean, I would say,

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Speaker 2: you know, if we're injuring or hurting people at work,

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Speaker 2: it's the ultimate waste. We have either got wrong gear

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Speaker 2: for the job, We're either not providing the right training,

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Speaker 2: We're putting people into too much pressure. And when you

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Speaker 2: add all that up. The report we commisioned this year,

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Speaker 2: State of a Thriving Nation and report put the cost

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Speaker 2: at four point nine billion dollars to New Zealand and

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Speaker 2: it's a conservative estimate around what that cost is. So

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Speaker 2: not only have we lost productivity to our individual businesses

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Speaker 2: and the families of these workers. As a country, this

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Speaker 2: is costing us.

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Speaker 1: How does it work that we are twice as likely

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Speaker 1: to die in Australia? What are they doing where not?

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Speaker 1: Are they overregulated or more regulated?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think there is definitely an issue around regulation.

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Speaker 2: I mean, just for comparison across pretty much every industry

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Speaker 2: or sector you want, Australia in fewer people per capita

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Speaker 2: than New Zealand, so it's not just an industry controlling

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Speaker 2: for forestry or farming. They have the same lead to

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Speaker 2: liver frameworkers US. What they've provided in Australia and it's

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Speaker 2: similar in the UK is they've just got greater clarity

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Speaker 2: with guidance and regulation for workers and businesses, so people

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Speaker 2: are clear on what their expectations are on them and

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Speaker 2: the regulators are more present. I found this years will

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Speaker 2: publically dug into that and New Zealand have all reactive

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Speaker 2: and proactive when compared to Australia. So I think businesses

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Speaker 2: in Australia just have greater clarity of what's expected of

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Speaker 2: that sense that look, whether it's unions or insurance costs

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Speaker 2: or the regulator.

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Speaker 1: They need to be onto those and that doesn't affect productivity.

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Speaker 1: So in other words, the more regulated you are, the

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Speaker 1: more rules that are, the more highbreds vests there are,

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Speaker 1: the slower the work rate as opposed to a person

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Speaker 1: once again falling out of a tree and breaking the leak.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I mean I think road cones are a

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Speaker 2: topical the moment. I don't think just the present of

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Speaker 2: hibers and rokers that's not safety. That can be performance

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Speaker 2: of safety. What drives productivity is good technology, but also

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Speaker 2: confidence and clarity. And I think what we see in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand is our productivity rates and our workplace injury

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Speaker 2: and fatality rates kind of mirror each other when we

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Speaker 2: compare to Australia. Business leaders I talk to say, look,

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Speaker 2: we don't have too much red tape in New Zealand

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Speaker 2: at the moment. We've got too much ambiguity. We have

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Speaker 2: a lack of clarity, all right.

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Speaker 1: Process. Francois Marton, Business Leaders, Health and Safety Forum Executive Director.

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