Editorial: Safety rules should not go too far

Wairarapa National MP Alastair Scott

You know an issue is important when farmers sacrifice watching an All Blacks test match for a meeting.

Well, that is what happened yesterday afternoon when about 200 farmers descended on Havelock North to express their concern over the Health and Safety Reform Bill. This is a controversial change to health and safety legislation that farmers believe is unfriendly to them. They say they weren't consulted properly and that the new rules are over-regulation.

By all accounts Wairarapa National MP Alastair Scott, who addressed the meeting and is on Parliament's transport and industrial relations committee, got quite a grilling. One can understand where the farmers are coming from. Their job is tough enough without having to dance around rules that probably won't solve many of the safety issues anyway.

Don't get me wrong, workplace safety is of paramount importance and should never be compromised. But, this is the farm after all. Unfortunately you are always going to get some who put their own lives and others in jeopardy, but why punish the majority of farmers who simply want to toil the land and come out on the right side of the ledger each year.

The National Government probably needs to tread carefully on this one, because this is precisely the type of over-regulation that turns voters off.

Remember the last Labour Government's "shower-head legislation", which many saw as the start of the slide to the opposition benches? Well, this is starting to smell the same.

Farmers in our region are probably mostly supporters of this Government and therefore their views should not be ignored.

It is important to establish a safety regime on farms, but for goodness sake also let these men of the land do what they do best - farm.