Thread: WorkSafe: hunting on farmland

I heard tonight that local farmers are being warned by WorkSafe about the health and safety implications of letting amateur hunters onto their land. Evidently with no insurance and no JSA we're a big problem now. Any suggestions?

There are links somewhere on here. The gist of it is that hunting where there are no ongoing farming activities the health and safety has nothing to do with landowner. If you fall down a trench that's just dug for a waterline then landowner shout have put tape round it. I'm no lawyer but that's the way I have interpreted things

I won't be able to fart shortly, unless I have a bucket strapped to my arse! Why do NZers let this shit happen. DOC land will be next! A big money grab IMHO and kill as much fun as possible!

Not only in areas with "ongoing farming activity" nothing is in concrete yet but the regulations are tightening leading us to be pretty careful about who is let on farm fullstop. Even contractors etc have to have a full safety briefing and sign a declaration saying they understand all the literature contained within our hazard register(which is about twenty pages long in itself). Its a pain in the ass, cant make a simple call to someone to come and do a job anymore, if they havnt been on farm within the past 6 months they have to be taken through the whole nine yards.

@Maca49 course your allowed to fart but only if you have paid the relevant tax!

Yep that's what it's about, tax!

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Not only in areas with "ongoing farming activity" nothing is in concrete yet but the regulations are tightening leading us to be pretty careful about who is let on farm fullstop. Even contractors etc have to have a full safety briefing and sign a declaration saying they understand all the literature contained within our hazard register(which is about twenty pages long in itself). Its a pain in the ass, cant make a simple call to someone to come and do a job anymore, if they havnt been on farm within the past 6 months they have to be taken through the whole nine yards.

Thank you Ryan. That's exactly what I'd heard. It's a shame but also understandable. So a contractor vs an amateur is always going to be preferable from now I'm guessing.

They can regulate as much as they want and take all the prosecutions they can handle but they will never eliminate the freak / chance accident and they will never take the dumb out of idjits that do stupid stuff.

We are pretty hot on it here as we cant afford not to be, due to the way things are heading we have to cover our ass from all directions, cant just worry about our own staff anymore, we just recently gained what they call a "tertiary level" certification from Farmsafe and ACC which does come with the benefits of a lower levy as we have everything in place, some farmers are still laid back but the direction everything is going is going to mean they will all have to come up to this level also.

It all sounds like BULLSHIT to me, to me------------ to me!,

What they havnt factored in is mental health, some weeks I think im going to lose my bloody mind due to all the paperwork involved, I wanted to be a farmer because I enjoy being outdoors, living rural, working with animals all that lovely farmer stuff, but I could damn near just wear a suit and tie and sit in my office all week

As long as the hunter has done a task analysis and signed off on your hazard register you should be alright. In saying that its all getting a bit over the top. Worksafe have been told to generate income so they are out there looking for anything that they can issue fines for.

Originally Posted by nelpop

As long as the hunter has done a task analysis and signed off on your hazard register you should be alright. In saying that its all getting a bit over the top. Worksafe have been told to generate income so they are out there looking for anything that they can issue fines for.

Thats just the start of it, believe me, we have had farmsafe and acc here every second day the last few weeks getting this all sorted out, basically what we are doing now is going to become requirements for all farmers, theres going to be a lot of farmers that just close the gates as its too much trouble just to allow someone to go shoot a deer.

Visitors and events on farms – Safer Farms

Farmers are certainly running scared about H&S, but its more about poor understanding of the legislation and unfounded fear of prosecution than it is about draconian legislation.

Farmers had a poor understanding of the previous HSE Act, let alone this new one which is more complex and regulatory.

If farmers discharge their higher duties as a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking), they should be well covered for any risks to visitors and hunters, albeit that that's a generalisation.

You mentioned FarmSafe Ryan. I was the external consultant to ACC on FarmSafe's design and development. I worked alongside a man named John Wallaart who led the ACC team. It was a great work period of my life, and I'm proud of what we created. If you live to be 67 you can pack a fair bit into a working life

The work safe people I spoke to said it's not work so they don't care. There's lots of bs going around about work safe, plenty of it is company policy going over board protecting themselves I was told.