Submission on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill

Site Safe New Zealand welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill before the Education and Workforce Committee.

Site Safe is the construction sector’s national, not-for-profit safety organisation. Established by industry, for industry, we work alongside nearly 6,000 building and construction firms who are our Site Safe members across New Zealand. These members range from sole traders and small contractors through to large commercial builders operating on major projects. Each year we also train over 70,000 workers and provide practical health and safety support through a nationwide network of safety advisors. Construction remains one of New Zealand’s highest-risk sectors, so our members have a strong interest in ensuring the health and safety system is clear, practical, and effective in reducing harm.

Site Safe supports the Government’s intention to sharpen the system’s focus on critical risks. Our members recognise the value of directing attention and resources toward the hazards most likely to cause death, serious injury, illness, or long-term harm. In principle, this is a constructive direction.

However, member feedback also highlights an important concern. In construction, a stronger focus on critical risk must not weaken the broader discipline of identifying, assessing, and managing risk across the whole site. That is particularly important in a sector where many businesses work side by side, often under shared systems and overlapping responsibilities. If the reforms are interpreted as reducing the need for some businesses to assess risk more broadly, the result could be inconsistency, confusion, and gaps in risk management on site.

Keep critical risk in focus - without narrowing risk management

Construction firms support prioritising the most serious risks. That reflects the reality of the sector. Work at height, heavy plant, lifting operations, excavations, temporary works, electrical risks, and vehicle movements can all cause life-altering or fatal harm.

But members were equally clear that a focus on critical risk must sit alongside good overall risk management. On construction sites, many injuries do not arise from a single catastrophic event. They come from manual handling, repetitive work, awkward postures, cumulative strain, slips, trips, and other day-to-day hazards. These risks may not always fit a narrow interpretation of “critical risk”, but they still cause real harm and still require active management. The reforms should support prioritisation, not disengagement.

Make it clear that every business on site must assess risk

This issue is particularly important in relation to smaller businesses. Members support reducing unnecessary compliance burden where that can be done sensibly. But there is growing concern about moving to a framework that treats smaller PCBUs differently without also making clear that risk on a construction site is not determined by business size.

That concern has become more acute if the distinction is no longer limited to small, low-risk businesses, as was stated in the original MBIE framing. In construction, even very small businesses and sole traders can undertake work that creates, contributes to, or is exposed to serious risk. A business may be small in size but still be operating in a high-risk environment or carrying out activities that affect the safety of others.

This matters because construction worksites are shared environments. They typically involve a head contractor and a range of subcontractors, many of them small businesses or sole traders. Those businesses do not operate in isolation. Their work interacts, overlaps, and changes the risk profile of the site for everyone else. One contractor’s decisions can directly affect the health and safety of others working nearby.

For that reason, the legislation and supporting material should make one point unmistakably clear: every business on a construction site must still identify, assess, and manage the risks arising from its work. Any effort to reduce compliance burden must not create ambiguity about that basic responsibility. Business size should not be allowed to imply lower expectations where people are exposed to serious hazards. We strongly recommend reinstating the ‘low risk’ qualifier for smaller PCBUs who need only focus on critical risks, as was initially signalled.

Reflect how construction sites actually operate

Construction work is dynamic, layered, and interdependent. Sites often involve multiple contractors, changing conditions, shared work areas, and overlapping duties. In that environment, inconsistent approaches to risk do not stay contained within one business. They affect the whole site.

That is why Site Safe strongly supports greater clarity around responsibilities across clients, principal contractors, contractors, and subcontractors. The framework needs to work in the real conditions of construction, where risks are shared and coordination matters. Members want confidence that the reforms will support consistent expectations across all parties on site, not create a two-tier approach to risk management based on business size.

Provide guidance that supports consistent practice

Practical implementation support is also critical to the success of these reforms. Members consistently told us that businesses need clear guidance on what the changes mean in practice and how they should apply them on real worksites.

That includes sector-specific examples, practical tools, and straightforward explanations of how a focus on critical risk should operate alongside broader risk management. It should also include guidance on how duties apply in mixed contracting and subcontracting environments, where multiple businesses are working together under shared site arrangements.

Clear guidance will be essential to avoid inconsistent interpretation and to give businesses confidence that they are meeting expectations in a practical and proportionate way.

Work with industry to make the reforms effective

Site Safe has a long-standing role helping the sector translate regulatory expectations into practical action. Through training, advisory services, tools, and engagement with industry, we work closely with businesses of all sizes to improve safety capability on site.

We would welcome the opportunity to support the implementation of these reforms so they are practical, well understood, and effective in improving safety outcomes. Site Safe is well placed to help ensure the intent of the reforms is translated into clear expectations and workable guidance for the construction sector.

Keep the reforms grounded in the realities of construction

Site Safe supports the intention of the Bill to increase focus on critical risks. That is the right direction. But in construction, this must not come at the expense of broader risk identification and assessment across the site. The legislation should reinforce that all businesses on site, large and small, have a role in actively managing risk. If that principle is made clear, the reforms will be more likely to lift safety performance in practice and deliver the stronger outcomes that workers, businesses, and whānau need.