In Harm's Way

I am surprised the authorities are still comparing the New Zealand workplace fatality rate with Australian and UK rates when they are not comparing similar databases (“Doing without the canary”, New Zealand Listener 15 November 2025). According to latest research our record is said to be twice as bad as Australia’s and four times as bad as the United Kingdom’s. The government is apparently proposing to make changes to close the gap but that is not likely to happen because of ACC.

I have travelled widely over Europe, UK, Canada and Australia advising on, and fixing workers compensation schemes and lecturing at conferences and law schools on our ACC system. It is no wonder our data is so different from other countries, because many countries I visited are established as federations of states. In most cases, each state has its own workers compensation scheme with its own rules. All workers compensation schemes I have studied provide cover for I sustained by employees and make the employer liable. Self-employed earners are not covered by such schemes.

The ACC gives comprehensive cover for all injuries whether at work or not. A self-employed person who is injured has no employer therefore nobody has liability for causing the injury. The injury may be recorded by ACC as a work injury or a non-work injury. The self-employed are currently under the experience rating system and are therefore unlikely to report the accident as a work accident if it will affect entitlement to a “no-claims bonus”. The ACC data therefore cannot be compared with workers compensation data because the self-employed are not included in workers compensation records.

Published in New Zealand Listener, 29 November 2025. P6.