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Who is standing up for Maori worker rights?
MARTYN BRADBURY
Beyond all the mockery of the Government listing mini putt golf and worm farming as high risk when they have allowed sheep, dairy and beef farming into low risk, the jarring reality is that it is Maori workers who are most at risk from our slack health and safety laws.
The Government has watered down the latest legislation to pacify the industries they are closely aligned with (sheep, beef and dairy farming) but this has created a farce by putting things like rabbit and parrot breeding into a higher risk threshold.
Allowing industry to write their own rules is exactly what led to the deaths at the Pike River Mine.
For Maori workers, the issue is no laughing matter.
Maori workers are more likely to be seriously injured at a rate of 18 per 1000 compared to 14 per 1000 in the Pakeha workforce. It is the workplaces dominated by Maori that are the most dangerous and while this Government's focus is on keeping costs down for those industries, it is the families of those injured who are paying the real price.
For the wider media, the focus is on how silly the Government's health and safety laws are, for Maori workers the joke is pretty hollow.
Martyn Bradbury
Editor – TheDailyBlog.co.nz
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