RECENT NEWS

The NZ Herald recently had a couple of articles about a car versus a bus accident in Te Anau. The first photo I saw was the burnt wreck of both vehicles. However, the second article I saw showed the vehicles fully alight, flames leaping high, and black smoke filling the sky. The article read that the man inside the car was screaming for help. Around the same time, there was a fatal car versus train incident near Matamata. The photos, and story, about the Te Anau accident app

Recently I undertook site audits for a client who is helping with the Edgecumbe disaster recovery. It was very interesting to see the damage, and the clean-up which is underway. It was also heart breaking looking at the mess - the damaged houses were somebody’s pride and joy. Whilst I was in Edgecumbe, I heard a lot of people saying that no one could have predicted the floods. That may be true, but, as business owners or managers we should be identifying the potential emerge

There are many things that an employer or manager does to ensure the safety of their workers; remember that workers include contractors, sub-contractors and other people. Some of these things are: Induction – making sure workers know about how we do health and safety in our organisation. Training – making sure workers know the best and safest way to do their tasks. Supervision – providing an experienced worker to watch over a worker who may be new, or new to the task.

PCBUs PCBU means person conducting a business or undertaking. This is the entity of the business, so Safewise is a PCBU. It is not a person unless the business is a sole trader. The current act says the employer must provide a safe place of work but in the new Health and Safety at Work 2015 Act the PCBU has the primary duty of care for the health and safety of workers and others in the workplace. As far as is reasonably practicable they must: Provide and maintain safe p

Summer is the favourite season for many of us. We love the long days, the hot weather and the chance to be outside. Whether socialising or working in the garden, summer is fun. Last year, summer was incredibly hot, and workers were becoming tired and distracted by the middle of the afternoon. Safewise would, on average, investigate two serious harm (now notifiable events) incidents a year for our clients. Last summer there were four in January alone. Each of these involved di

There is a lot to think about when we are working. We need to be sure that we are doing the job to the best of our abilities: quality, efficiency, and safely. Often we are focused on the task and presume that other people around us are aware of how and what we are doing.. However, this is not always the case. It is easy to assume that, because we understand our job very well, other people have the same knowledge. This is seldom the case. It can help to know what types of pe

People talk a lot about the work–life balance, but what does it mean? Life cannot be divided up into equal parcels of time, or commitment; half my life will be spent working and half my life will be my own. The world is not that simplistic. We all need to work, unless we are lucky enough to have won Lotto. Sometimes our work will dominate our lives. For me, this year has been a lot about work. Safewise has been busy with the demand created by the implementation of the Health

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 & "Reasonably Practicable" Steps Last month, we discussed reasonably practicable steps. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 talks a lot about doing what is reasonably practicable. It requires that an organisation does what any other organisation would be expected to reasonably do. Let’s look at an example which can be quite common in the transport industry – overloading. Firstly, we will assume that the transport operator does not want to

Last updated April 2026. In 2015, the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) replaced the old concept of serious harm with notifiable events. While the language changed, the purpose did not. To ensure WorkSafe is informed when serious work‑related harm or risk occurs. More than ten years on, notifiable events are still an area of confusion for many businesses. This is often because people rely on outdated examples or focus on injury outcomes rather than the legal test. This bl