"Farmers know this performance is not good enough," said board member Katie Milne.
"We and our members accept that current safety performance is not good enough and the changes being brought about by the bill are just some of the ways that we'll continue to address this."
WorkSafe's agriculture programme manager Al McCone said a change in culture across the industry was the simple solution.
"Culturally, New Zealand as a whole has to stop regarding a finger lopped off during work activity as a 'badge of honour' - a 'look I survived this accident' approach. A survived injury in a workplace is often nothing more than a death avoided," he said.
"Until that change in attitude towards health and safety takes place in farming, people will still be injured in the workplace, and the emotional and financial cost to everyone involved in the sector will remain high."
Mr McCone said there were a variety of reasons why farming had the highest number of injuries and fatalities.
"Farming requires a wide mixture of skill sets, including driving vehicles, operating large machinery, conducting basic engineering, handling stock - including large undomesticated animals, operating or using a wide variety of small tools, financial management, and pastoral management.
"The businesses these skills are exercised in have a seven-day working week, are located across a wide variety of terrain and require outside, physical work in a variety of weather conditions. The sector has a history of wresting a living through innovation, number 8 wire mentality, long hours and minimum staff numbers.
"All of these things combine into a potent mixture of risk which needs to be managed. Changing the culture in farming will not stifle the innovation - it will simply make farms safer places to work."
