Watered down health and safety proposals will cost lives, say Pike River family members

Anna Osborne, left, and Sonya Rockhouse during their silent vigil, to mark the second reading of the Government's Health and Safety Reform Bill, outside Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Watered down health and safety proposals will cost lives, family members of those killed in the Pike River disaster say.

"I never, ever want another mother to go through what I have had to go through over the last five years. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. It is like a life sentence," said Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben, 21, in the mine.

"We are not going away. We will keep doing this sort of thing until somebody listens. I am still a reasonably young woman, I am willing to keep doing it until the day I die, until something changes."

Mrs Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, who lost her husband Milton in the 2010 disaster, were amongst those who tonight held a vigil outside Parliament, along with 291 crosses to mark workplace deaths since Pike River.

Also present was Deborah McMillan, whose husband Shane Frater was killed in a forestry accident in Napier in 2009 when a branch hit him.

The Council of Trade Unions has taken the crosses around the country.

The Health and Safety Reform Bill is due to have its second reading tomorrow, and has been changed from the original bill which would have given all workers the right to have health and safety reps.

The original proposal to allow all workers the right to have health and safety representatives was supported by a task force, including employers, which reviewed of health and safety laws in the wake of the deaths of 29 mean in the Pike River mining disaster.

Employer groups are now split over the changes: the Employers and Manufacturers' Northern support the original plan for universal entitlement; Business New Zealand has welcomed the changes on behalf of small businesses.

Some smaller companies will be defined as a high-risk business under regulations associated with the reforms, meaning they will still need health and safety representatives even if they number fewer than 20 people.

The types of businesses to be defined as high-risk or low-risk by officials in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will not be known before Parliament debates the remaining stages of the bill.

On the weekend Prime Minister John Key said the Government took workplace safety seriously.

"We accept that too many people have died in the workplace...in terms of the health and safety law reform, we have tried desperately hard to get the right balance here.

"And I do think as a result of the legislation the workplace in New Zealand will be safer."

However, Mrs Osborne said she wanted to send a strong message to Mr Key and his colleagues that the measures were not good enough.

"Because the inspectors can't be everywhere we need a lot more health and safety reps in our industry.

The vigil ended after about 40 minutes when Parliamentary security asked for the crosses to be removed.