It came as the controversial Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill awaits its second reading in Parliament.
Peters says he’ll definitely stop it — but we’ll just have to wait till after the election.
The bill, introduced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has been slammed by unions, politicians and workers for weakening regulations brought in after the Pike River mining explosion that killed 29 workers.
It was criticised for turning the clock back on health and safety — rushing through ideological changes, lowering protections for workers in small businesses, and creating confusion.
Wellington health-care assistant Anne Christensen said she turned out to protect health workers’ safety. In health and nursing, the biggest safety issue was understaffing, she told Kaitiaki.
“It’s just the constant issues with safe staffing,” said Christensen, who is also health and safety representative at her work. “I’m very concerned to any changes that we have for safer staffing and really we all need to support each other to ensure that things don’t get worse, rather than better.”
She warned that a less safe workplace led to burnout and loss of health and nursing staff. “You can’t retain them if people are worried about going to work and keeping safe – so it’s at least important that we retain the current standards and not start chipping away at them.”
Pike River campaigners Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse spoke at the event — dismayed by the Government’s attempts to unravel health and safety changes they have championed.
Rockhouse said she knew the exact location where her son Ben’s body lay deep in the mine where he was killed 16 years ago. “I’m here today to speak for him, because sadly he can’t speak for himself.”
She said it was criminal that she had to remind people of the dangers of stripping health and safety lessons.
“For example the New Zealand minister for Worksafe [van Velden’s responsibility] admitted she hasn’t read the Royal Commission report on Pike River yet. Yet she feels equipped to suggest these unsafe and absurd amendments to health and safety laws.”
The bill would ultimately create more risk for workers. “Our government wants to weaken the very laws designed to ensure better safety in the workplace.”
Workplace safety records in New Zealand were still amongst the worst in developed nations, Rockhouse said, with death and injury rates twice that of Australia.
“My son was killed almost 16 years ago, I nearly lost a second son in the explosion. Daniel was one of two men who escaped the mine after being knocked unconscious for 50 minutes.”
Everyone deserved to go to work and return safely to their families, unharmed, she said.
Meanwhile Peters had previously told media he couldn’t stop the bill because of the coalition agreement.
However speaking to a crowd that shouted for him to “kill the bill”, he said he couldn’t stop it now because of “logistical reasons”. Peters promised that if New Zealand First returned after the election he would make getting rid of the law a priority.
Labour spokesperson for workplace relations and safety Jan Tinetti pointed out the coalition agreement that Peters mentioned was between ACT and National.
“Winston Peters has the opportunity to vote this down. I challenge him to vote this down and put workers’ right first, now. The longer we wait, the more workers will be seriously injured and die.”
Meanwhile Greens workplace relations and safety spokesperson Teanau Tuiono warned the crowd to look out for campaigning right-wing politicians “cos-playing” like they cared about workers’ rights. This included Peters. “They do not care about workers and this legislation is another example of that.”
Neither Labour nor the Greens would support the bill.
NZNO president Anne Daniels said nurses understood well the impact of unsafe, understaffed workplaces, both on themselves and on patients.
Research showed more than half of health-care workers experienced high levels of violence, abuse and bullying, leading to “unsustainable levels of stress, burnout and moral harm”, she said. “When patients suffer, so do we.”
Yet the amendment would remove psycho-social harm as a critical risk. “Serious and harmful risks to health and safety are being pushed aside by this Government, she said.
See also: Law changes will make it difficult for us to stay safe in health.
NZNO demanded “every member of Parliament vote against the dangerous legislation”.
Daniels said the current health and safety laws were passed in the wake of one of the worst disasters in New Zealand’s industrial history — Pike River.
“Those men are not statistics. They are real. They are cared for. We care for them. That’s why we’re standing here today.”
The event included 75 pairs of shoes laid out on the steps, representing the number of people who died from suicide linked to workplace pressure last year.
NZ First leader Winston Peters takes on ‘kill the bill’ hecklers at Parliament over ACT Party’s health and safety at work bill.