9 November 2013

The Rotorua coroner will hold five inquests into forestry workers' from March next year with the aim of identifying systemic issues within the forest industry.

This follows similar clusters of inquests into cycling and quad bike deaths. Chief Coroner Neil MacLean said grouping the inquests together could cast light on systemic issues.

"It's a very cost-effective and sensible way of getting not just the immediate facts from the witnesses and the people involved, but also then a broader expert perspective on what conclusions perhaps could be drawn from those facts - or, more importantly, whether there are any sensible recommendations that perhaps could be made."

The inquests would be conducted by Bay of Plenty Coroner Wallace Bain, who is based in Rotorua.

The Chief Coroner's office has already laid the groundwork with an analysis of six years of forestry-related deaths, including logging truck fatalities.

The analysis, published on Friday, shows there has been an average of five forestry deaths a year between July 2007 and August this year.

The analysis noted the sector had the highest rate of workplace injury deaths in New Zealand, with six so far this year alone. The number of serious incidents was on the rise, with 188 serious harm notifications last year - the highest in five years.

The high injury rate is among the issues to be tackled by an independent safety review, whose stakeholders include unions, workers, forestry owners and industry organisations.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the groups were in the process of finalising the terms of reference and nominating review panel members.

Ms Kelly said the series of inquests next year was an "opportunity to look for patterns". However, it was disappointing that previous coroner's recommendations, on issues such as working in bad weather or double-anchoring trees, had not been adopted in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) new code of practice for safety in the industry.

Labour Minister Simon Power agreed the number of fatalities among forestry workers was too high and the safety record was unacceptable.He said the new code of practice showed long-term commitment to change from the industry, workers and MBIE.

That was being supported with a strong enforcement approach and assessments of all 330 logging contracting operations in the country.

The Government has ruled out launching its own inquiry into the forestry sector, but Mr Power said he would encourage MBIE to provide support for an industry-led review.

Source: Story by Matthew Backhouse, Otago Daily Times. To read the full story, click here.