At the time, commenting on this, I wrote about a lunch I’d had a decade earlier with the then but now deceased volcanologist, Professor Clark of Victoria University. He’d told me that at some time, albeit possibly hundreds of years in the future, White Island would inevitably explode to such a degree as to take out a fair portion of Auckland.
Following the explosion, two helicopter pilots received awards for heroism in their recue efforts.
Stuff journalist Marty Sharpe last week produced an extraordinary article re the subsequent prosecutions by Worksafe of these pilots and diverse others. This resulted in one being found guilty by a jury, six having the charges dismissed and six pleading guilty.
What Marty Sharpe has now revealed however, is not merely scandalous but criminally corrupt.
For it transpired that the Worksafe agency appointed an inspector, Paul Patterson, to do the initial investigations. Patterson’s expertise credentials were first rate and with an assistant he toiled at what Sharpe describes as “arduous and intensive work” involving 12 hour days, five days a week for over nine months.
Ultimately, Patterson’s 53 page report cleared the various helicopter operators from any wrongdoing, indeed to the contrary as he spoke praisingly of their efforts.
To cut to the quick it transpired this report was not to Worksafe’s agenda. So they re-wrote it to their desired outcome but fraudulently left Patterson’s signature on it.
There was a lengthy row and eventually Patterson’s name was removed and the new report professing criminal negligence led on to the prosecutions.
Disgusted, Patterson resigned. Various defendants copped massive fines.
What Marty Sharpe’s article reveals is simply corruption by a government agency with a pre-determined agenda.
It must not be left there and a full enquiry need be held, not merely into this affair but Workspace itself which seems hell-bent on prosecuting employers over trivia. We constantly read of their often preposterous prosecutions of employers over plainly contrived purported offences.
This is an agency we can well do without and should be top of the list in the government’s overdue mission to cut the fat out of the bureaucracy.
Well done to Marty Sharpe for exposing this basically criminal conduct.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
Stuff journalist Marty Sharpe last week produced an extraordinary article re the subsequent prosecutions by Worksafe of these pilots and diverse others. This resulted in one being found guilty by a jury, six having the charges dismissed and six pleading guilty.
What Marty Sharpe has now revealed however, is not merely scandalous but criminally corrupt.
For it transpired that the Worksafe agency appointed an inspector, Paul Patterson, to do the initial investigations. Patterson’s expertise credentials were first rate and with an assistant he toiled at what Sharpe describes as “arduous and intensive work” involving 12 hour days, five days a week for over nine months.
Ultimately, Patterson’s 53 page report cleared the various helicopter operators from any wrongdoing, indeed to the contrary as he spoke praisingly of their efforts.
To cut to the quick it transpired this report was not to Worksafe’s agenda. So they re-wrote it to their desired outcome but fraudulently left Patterson’s signature on it.
There was a lengthy row and eventually Patterson’s name was removed and the new report professing criminal negligence led on to the prosecutions.
Disgusted, Patterson resigned. Various defendants copped massive fines.
What Marty Sharpe’s article reveals is simply corruption by a government agency with a pre-determined agenda.
It must not be left there and a full enquiry need be held, not merely into this affair but Workspace itself which seems hell-bent on prosecuting employers over trivia. We constantly read of their often preposterous prosecutions of employers over plainly contrived purported offences.
This is an agency we can well do without and should be top of the list in the government’s overdue mission to cut the fat out of the bureaucracy.
Well done to Marty Sharpe for exposing this basically criminal conduct.
Sir Bob Jones is a renowned author, columnist , property investor, and former politician, who blogs at No Punches Pulled HERE - where this article was sourced.
10 comments:
But this is not new. My then employer was once prosecuted and fined a not insignificant amount for allowing an employee to use an office typewriter to practice her typing as a result of which she allegedly developed RSI(she was the receptionist and trying to improve her prospects). That same employer also felt obliged to pay for a consultant to give all the staff a seminar on sexual harassment techniques because he had been advised that was the only defense against charges of failing to keep female employees safe in the workplace.
Didn’t Worksafe have responsibility for inspections and the audit of the safety plan. Not such a surprise for an agency that was mostly interested in hiding their own incompetence. Given that worksafe had some operational responsibility the court could reasonably have pointed out their conflict of interest but thy did not. This is all about covering their butt and finding guilty parties other than themselves seems to indicate Worksafe were successful.
Thanks for telling us Bob - not reading MSM, I had no idea. That's almost unbelievable. I so hope the investigation is in the offing.
(I was a Public Servant once - and I was proud - truly! - admit to being naive, but no, -in 1982 we rushed to answer applications under the new Information Act, servants of the public!)
Good on Marty Sharpe!
It used to be claimed that the small business was key in our society. Such progressively introduced a range of candidates to management, created local employment for all sorts, engendered competition and hence efficiency. But wage complexity, tax, insurance, and above all the uncertainty, complexity of safety requirements and terror of crippling potential liability now deter near all. Instead we have large companies, many of which influence scale and/or self generate and extend work (ie traffic management). Profits frequently flow overseas. Much is presumably to contain the ACC spend. But I suspect all citizens pay indirectly a huge contribution for exaggerated safety measures. Incredibly Worksafe manage to miss the most obvious.
It seems a stretch that the helicopter pilots were held responsible. If a taxi driver drops someone at a wild party and they later get injured, is the driver responsible?
The regulation industries are very secure employment and Worksafe seems determined to ensure that continues.
Worksafe have one agenda and that is to be able to prove to their bosses that at the end of each year they have successfully prosecuted X number of people/ companies and made the workplace safer. Aren't we brilliant at our job.
Cost is no problem, they can hire the most expensive lawyers and experts to prove that some poor worker made a small error or didn't follow a company procedure to the letter. No matter the cost, it's a win, in a system that is so stacked against the defend it's almost a case of guilty until proven innocent.
I'm surprised that anyone sets up a business in this country.
Electrical workers are well experienced and qualified at working on live high voltage systems.
Too dangerous, says Work Safe, from the comfort of their warm office chairs and no expertise in the business , you must turn off all power.
A few years back, an Invercargill company worked on a live switchboard, rather than incapacitating the city by turning off all the power to the city's water systems.
A very minor accident cost the company about $1.3M in fines and costs.
Work Safe can not expect NZ to function in the constant fear of prosecution for not applying enough cotton wool to every job.
And of course, this cotton wooling if the root cause of our Red cone road problem!
Sir BJ, please keep us up with developments on this outrage.
Thank you .
Never heard of an inquiry when the bridge/walkway at Whakarewarewa collapsed and dunked a 'tourist' into a very hot pool. Where were these Worksafe people? Or MSM wokes then?
Thanks Sir Bob. I often wonder what the effect on NZs productivity would be if Worksafe didn't exist. There must be a far more effective and efficient way to ensure the safety that Worksafe desperately tries to foist on those doing their jobs. The White Island prosecutions were a farce. Worksafe is the sole entity that should have been charged.
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