February 2016
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Breaking new ground Page 6
Forster leaves with no regrets Hugh de Lacy Tony Forster, the Scotsman charged with drilling health and safety into New Zealand’s extractives industry in the wake of the 2010 Pike River coalmine disaster, is heading home with the satisfaction of a job well done. Formerly Her Majesty’s Principal Inspector of Mines for the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Forster was head-hunted three years ago by the Government to fill the new role of Chief Inspector Extractives of Worksafe NZ’s High Hazards Unit. As such his job was to put in place the performance-based codes of practice that were missing when the Health and Safety in Employment Act (HSE) came into force in 1991. The key problem with the HSE, identified by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Pike River
disaster that killed 29 miners, was that it failed to replace the old prescriptive workplace safety regimes when it moved to a performance-based system. That led to the breakdown in extractives industry safety inspectorate that allowed Pike River to operate in a dangerous manner. The changes that have occurred in the industry since then have been “seismic,” Foster told Business North. “The first thing we put in place was the Health and Safety in Employment (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) Regulations, which came into effect on December 16 [2013]. “That put a number of key components into the regulations, of which the main ones were establishing a health and safety management system built around the concept of principal hazards, and establishing core competence and
continuing professional development for safetycritical post-holders,” Forster said. Principal Hazard Management Plans addressed hazards that had the potential for multiple casualties in a single catastrophic event, or in a series of repeating incidents. “This was a massive change for New Zealand, and it does to a degree follow some of the model legislation in Australia, but it also introduced another concept called Principal Control Plans. “These [plans] are the fundamental elements within the new regulations that really tie the management system together for all mines and tunnels,” he says. The regulations also cover tunnels under construction, “and that is again really important given the growth in the tunnelling industry in New Zealand.” Forster is proud of the legislation which he says
embraces the best of international standards, to the degree that he believes “other parts of the world would do well to copy what New Zealand’s done. “New Zealand has moved from being at the back of the queue with many of these issues, but now people are looking quite enviously at what New Zealand has achieved over the past three years, because it really does represent a significant body of work.” WorkSafe NZ was about halfway through the process of introducing approved codes of practice to support both the Act and the regulations. The various groups – quarries, alluvial miners, goldminers, drillers, tunnellers, surface and underground miners – had started to gel into a broad group under the Extractives banner. Forster attributed the success of the changes he had introduced to the support and commitment he had received from the industry.
Taupo dairy farm among those in sale Chris Hutching A large dairy farm near Taupo has been placed on the market in a receivership sale. The 1235ha farm on Taharua Rd, Rangitaiki 38kms south-east of Taupo carries approximately 2500 cows in two herds. During the 2014/2015 milking season the farm produced 519,477 kilograms of milk solids. It was among a group of farms owned by Glengyle Holdings (in receivership), a company associated with Marlborough farmer Philip Woolley. All except for one are dairy or dairy support farms. One of the properties is at Robin Hood Bay, Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds. In their initial report, the receivers David Ruscoe and Richard Simpson of Grant Thornton were confident that ASB’s debt of $29 million would be satisfied. But the report was written a year ago before the downturn in dairy fortunes. The farms include the 524ha Robin Hood Bay, 654ha Hillersden in Wairau Valley, 302ha Glengyle, 510ha Matakitaki near Nelson, 331ha Hunter Rd Tuamarina, 865ha Glenmae. Mr Woolley has featured in several court cases for a variety of offences involving breaching resource consents.
INSIDE
Waiheke Library a winner.... Waiheke Pataka Korero/Waiheke Library has taken out the top prize in the 2015 NZ Wood-Resene Timber Design Awards as the Resene Overall Supreme Award winner. It also won the Commercial Architectural Excellence Award. Auckland Libraries Corrina Meikle, service delivery
Ngai Tahu housing project - PAGE 2
Organics trial trial a first - PAGE 3
manager for Auckland Libraries, says the focus on integrating natural materials, primarily wood, into the design was the result of a desire for the building to reference and complement the island environment. See story page 12
A2 milk gaining traction - PAGE 3
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