New HASANZ Chair Appointed

11 August 2015

Media release

New HASANZ Chair Appointed

A highly experienced strategy and change specialist Craig Smith, has been appointed Independent Chair of the Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ). He replaces Shenagh Gleisner who has completed her term as HASANZ Establishment Chair.

HASANZ is the umbrella organisation for workplace health and safety professions in New Zealand and was established in September 2014 to raise professional standards to provide healthier and safer workplaces.

Craig Smith is well known in the health and safety sector. He was Secretariat Lead for the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety, which in 2012 recommended to the Government the establishment of a representative body (HASANZ) for health and safety professionals. Mr Smith subsequently assisted with the establishment of WorkSafe NZ and, recently, has been working with WorkSafe on its regulatory intervention approach. He has previously worked for the Department of Labour as Strategic Adviser to the Deputy Chief Executive, Health and Safety and as Chief Adviser, Employment Relations.

“Over the past three years, I have focused on developing initiatives to reduce workplace deaths and serious injuries and improve occupational health outcomes,” said Mr Smith.

HASANZ’s focus is to lift the quality of professional health and safety advice and make it more easily available to businesses, workers and industry bodies.

“If we lift the quality of professional advice, HASANZ can be a powerful influence on reducing the harm in New Zealand workplaces. The diverse range of organisations that are part of HASANZ gives us a massive reach into different sectors and workplaces and I believe that, working together with the business community, workers and government, we have a real opportunity to improve health and safety performance,” said Mr Smith.

“The national register of competent workplace health and safety professionals that HASANZ is currently developing will ensure that quality advice is more widely accessible,” he said. “Better access is critically important to achieving better outcomes. It is entirely achievable for us to be world leaders in workplace health and safety practice. The bottom line is that New Zealand’s workplaces are healthy and safe for the people who work there.”

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