Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Plans to reform workplace safety rules risk repeating the deadly failures of the Pike River mine disaster, officials are warning.
The proposals would shift regulator WorkSafe's focus from enforcement to guidance and cut 'red tape'.
But documents released to RNZ reveal a damning internal review found no evidence that the changes would actually reduce injuries or deaths.
WorkSafe itself cautioned that relying on broad guidance rather than regulation could create loopholes where companies engaged in unsafe practices, but could not be prosecuted.
The government is pushing on with the reforms anyway, and wants to have a bill before Parliament later this year.
"That's an insult," said Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the Pike River mine explosion in 2010. "That's absolutely an insult to the memories of our guys - and not just our guys but the rest of the people killed in the workplace every year."
Photo: AFP/Pool
The Pike River disaster, which killed 29 men, exposed the fatal risks of relying on broad safety laws and a weak, under-resourced regulator.
In 2012, the Pike River Royal Commission found New Zealand's old safety laws lacked the teeth to prevent disaster.
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