This Government bill amends the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the WorkSafe New Zealand Act 2013 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016. Its stated objectives are to reduce unnecessary compliance costs, increase certainty for businesses about what they need to do, and support continued reductions in workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses. It seeks to do this by focusing the system on critical risks, clarifying areas of confusion, strengthening approved codes of practice, and prioritising regulators' functions. It has since passed into law.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, second reading, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
This bill amends the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, New Zealand's main workplace safety law. Its central change is to refocus the system on "critical risks" — the hazards most likely to kill or seriously injure people — rather than requiring businesses to actively manage every conceivable risk. Small, lower-risk businesses (broadly those with fewer than 20 workers) would have lighter duties, needing to manage critical risks plus basic worker welfare. The bill also clarifies overlapping legal obligations, gives "safe harbour" status to approved codes of practice, and limits some landowner liability for recreational access. It affects employers (called PCBUs), directors, workers and the regulator WorkSafe.
It is a government bill responding to reviews arguing the current regime is confusing and drives businesses to "over-comply" out of fear. Supporters say sharpening the focus on serious hazards and easing paperwork for small, low-risk firms improves genuine safety while cutting needless cost. Opponents, including unions, argue that weakening duties and easing requirements for smaller workplaces could reduce protection for workers in a country with a high rate of workplace deaths.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.