The law means something

Former Ports of Auckland CEO Tony Gibson has been convicted of violating his duty to run a safe workplace over the death of one of his workers:

In a judgement released today, Judge Steve Bonnar found Gibson was guilty of one charge raised under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA); the charge that alleged Gibson had failed to comply with his duty under the act to exercise due diligence, and therefore exposed the port workers to a risk of death or serious injury.

In the 146 page judgment, Bonnar concluded that Gibson was "ultimately responsible for health and safety" and he was required to exercise systems leadership. He ruled Gibson should have been aware of the need for improvement of the monitoring of the night shift, but that in failing to address associated shortfalls failed in his duty.

"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Gibson's breach of his duty ... made it materially more likely that POAL would breach its duty of care to ensure that stevedores were not exposed to the risk of death or serious harm. His failure thereby exposed the stevedores to the risk of death or serious harm by being struck by objects from operating cranes."

Good. This is how the law is meant to work. Chief executives need to be strongly incentivised to run a safe workplace and not cut corners, and strict personal liability is the way to do that. And I'm glad that the law has passed its first test.

The question now is whether National will repeal it to protect their cronies from the consequences of their criminal behaviour.