{"id":492720,"date":"2026-06-24T04:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492720\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T04:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:49:09","slug":"winston-peters-says-governments-health-and-safety-reforms-will-be-dead-on-arrival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492720\/","title":{"rendered":"Winston Peters says Government\u2019s health and safety reforms will be \u2018dead on arrival\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Velden\u2019s bill proposes a radical shake-up of health and safety laws, which the Government says will increase certainty, reduce compliance costs and help businesses understand their responsibilities to protect their workers.<\/p>\n

But the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, which organised today\u2019s protests, says the legislation will wind back workplace protections that were introduced after the 2010 Pike River disaster<\/a>, which killed 29 men. <\/p>\n

\"ActAct leader David Seymour (left), National leader and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and NZ First leader Winston Peters appear split over a bill promoting health and safety reforms. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Peters told the crowd van Velden\u2019s bill would not last. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t logistically do it now, but I have come down the front here, I could\u2019ve stayed in my office, but I\u2019m going to come down and tell you … next time though, give me a few more men and women to do the job,\u201d Peters said, in reference to the number of votes given to New Zealand First at the election. <\/p>\n

He said there were \u201cfar too many people\u201d in Parliament who did not \u201cunderstand what a working day is, or what a working man and woman are, and you can tell by the way they talk and the way they act\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ActAct Party deputy leader Brooke van Velden, surrounded by her party colleagues, is leading the drive for major health and safety reforms. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve forgotten, for example, that it is the workforce of the country that in the end, keeps the country alive, and that no matter what the industry, they critically need the workers of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Velden said no specific concerns that would require an amendment had been raised by New Zealand First. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not the case, at the 11th hour, having been silent for over a month, that you can say that that was good faith coming from the other side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is politicking … Winston, if he actually has concerns, should spell out specifically what it is, and up until this point I have heard nothing about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters disputed this, saying his party was waiting for the formal Parliamentary report on the bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe report came last week. When we got hold of the report, we asked to have a meeting with her, and she said no.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Van Velden\u2019s bill proposes a radical shake-up of health and safety laws, which the Government says will increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,9869,5195,9218,690,5903,5346,5904,1888,7237,305,134,13489,20513,661,111,43,139,69,90,6729,1111,8263,6302,2687,312,14170,1361,121723,1533,6728,80],"class_list":["post-492720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-arrival","tag-be","tag-before","tag-dead","tag-election","tag-expected","tag-final","tag-first","tag-governments","tag-have","tag-health","tag-leader","tag-legislation","tag-major","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-peters","tag-reading","tag-reforms","tag-safety","tag-saying","tag-says","tag-scrap","tag-that","tag-vowing","tag-will","tag-winston","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}