Nearly half of Kiwis affected by poor H&S performance as annual toll rises to $4.9b
The Forum is proud to release its second annual State of a Thriving Nation report which shows the cost of New Zealand's poor health and safety performance has now risen to $4.9 billion in 2023. That's up from $4.4 billion the year before.
The 2024 report, written by economist Shamubeel Eaqub tracks our performance across industries and regions and compares where we're at with Australia and the United Kingdom. If we could catch up to Australia we would save $1.4 billion a year, and catching up to the UK would save us $3.4 billion a year.
In this year's report we also commissioned Kantar to understand people's experience of health and safety at work. It tells us:
- nearly 50% of New Zealanders are affected by a workplace incident to themselves, colleagues, family or friends
- more than half of people had a positive perception of New Zealand's health and safety performance and response following an incident at work
- when asked how much they would pay personally to make work safer in New Zealand, 55% said they would be a nominal amount, equating to $730 million a year.
Take a look at the key highlights and download the full report below.
You can also read our media release here.
