Health and safety overhaul pushed back by months until after the election
Tuesday, 30 June 2026
The Government will postpone the implementation of a major overhaul of health and safety law by five months until April next year, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has announced.
Van Velden said the change was designed to “provide more time for businesses, workers and sector groups to understand the law and develop advice and guidance”.
However, it could also give NZ First time to fulfil party leader Winston Peters’ promise to reverse the law changes after the election, before they took effect.
The law had previously been slated to come into full effect on November 1, with some clauses taking effect earlier.
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Peters spoke out strongly against the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill last week saying he agreed with advice from ACC that the law change would “create injuries and deaths”.
He maintained the party was bound to vote for it because of a coalition agreement but made clear his aspiration was to reverse the law change after the election, saying it would be “dead on arrival”.
“Sometimes you never give a hope, and there’s some news which is wonderful, but I want you to get it from them, not me,” he said, shortly before van Velden’s statement.
ACT Party leader David Seymour said the bill, which is part way through its second reading, was going to “pass very soon” and there had been no concessions to NZ First.
The second reading debate of the bill was adjourned last Wednesday evening and it is understood there is some chance it could resume this evening, depending on the progress of other legislation.
The Clerk of the House announced shortly after 4pm that Parliament would hear a number of debates, including the remaining stages of the second reading of the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill, under urgency.
The law change would need to go through two more votes, including its third and final reading, before becoming law.
“All three parties in this Government are in agreement that the bill will progress,” van Velden said.
She has promoted the reforms as a step forward for workplace safety, saying they would enable small businesses to focus on critical risks while making rules easier to follow and reducing compliance costs.
However, aspects of the reforms have been vehemently opposed by many health and safety professionals, including the Institute of Safety Management, whose chief executive, Jeff Sissons, said they were the result of developing policy by anecdote, rather than good policy-making, and would blow out workplace injury costs.
Sissons said the delay announced by van Velden was advisable, “given there was a lot of complexity” in the bill, but the institute would have preferred to see “the worst edges knocked off” the legislation.
The institute viewed the reforms as doing more harm than good and there were very few elements it supported, he said, also questioning whether its passage now was a good use of parliamentary time “given that a majority of parties in Parliament have said that they don’t like the changes and want to get rid of it”.