Improving Health and Safety
NZW is assisting Horticulture New Zealand with an ACC funded project looking at ways to improve health and safety across horticulture and viticulture.
A farm manager has been awarded reparations of $50,000 after a 2012 quad bike crash at work.
His employers were fined $20,000 for failing to keep him safe at work.
The farm manager broke his neck and sustained permanent brain damage when his quad bike hit a large tree while he was rounding up his dogs, WorkSafe NZ has reported. He was not wearing a helmet, although one had been purchased for the farm.
He was in an induced coma for two weeks.
The farm owners, Karen Anne McLanachan and Kenneth Rae McLanachan, were sentenced on December 14 in the Gisborne District Court under the Health and Safety in Employment Act for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of their employee.
The sentencing judge, Judge Collin, said the McLanachan's key failure was not having hazard identification or controls in place. He stated that it was "as obvious as night follows day" that had the defendants had a health and safety plan in place, then it would have followed that there would have been a clear direction that no one was to get on the quad bike without a helmet.
A 2014 investigation by WorkSafe health and safety inspectors could not determine why the bike collided with the tree.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.
Making things simpler, not harder, for deer farmers in farm planning and coping with regulations is Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) industry capability manager John Ladley’s current focus.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is launching an online business directory called The Country Women’s Collective to promote and support entrepreneurial rural women.
New Zealand actor Sam Neill has joined the Campaign for Wool NZ as an ambassador, lending his name and profile to educate and advocate for New Zealand strong wool.
Living labs that bring together expertise at locations around New Zealand are among potential solutions identified by researchers to help the country move towards a more climate resilient future.
OPINION: The new government has clearly signalled big cuts across the public service.
OPINION: Your canine crusader is not surprised by the recent news that New Zealand plant-based ‘fake meat’ business is in…