Port environments can be loud and busy places. Workers and all other persons engaged in, or in the vicinity of port operations need to be aware of health and safety risks present while carrying out their work.
Ports designation changes
From 1 July 2024, Maritime NZ is the responsible health and safety regulator on Aotearoa's 13 major ports. This means most health and safety events that take place on the following major ports will fall under Maritime NZ’s responsibilities:
- Northport
- Port of Auckland
- Port of Tauranga
- Eastland Port
- Port Taranaki
- Port of Napier
- Centre Port Wellington
- Port Nelson
- Port Marlborough
- Lyttelton Port
- PrimePort Timaru
- Port Otago, and
- South Port.
Maritime NZ's extended designation covers the port areas inside their boundary fence where access is restricted by a security gate; and adjacent buildings, installations, structures or equipment used in connection with the port’s operation or administration.
Maritime NZ has developed port profiles that identify the physical scope of its designation in ports from 1 July.
View the port profiles – Maritime NZ (external link)
WorkSafe will retain regulatory responsibility for:
- major hazard facilities on ports
- granting, varying, and cancelling authorisations and exemptions under the Health and Safety at Work Act
- oversight of inland ports across New Zealand, and
- any activity explicitly named in legislation or regulations such as the Gas Act, Electricity Act, and Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.
Port sector plan for improving safety on New Zealand’s ports
The Port Health and Safety Leadership Group – made up of unions, ports, and stevedoring companies; the Port Industry Association; Maritime NZ; and WorkSafe – has released its advice to the Minister of Transport, a multi-year Port Sector Insights Picture and Action Plan to make ports safer.
This follows the tragic deaths of two port workers in 2022, after which the Minister of Transport asked the Port Health and Safety Leadership Group for advice to address health and safety on ports.
The plan pulls together information from fatalities, injuries, incidents, near-misses, regulatory notifications, investigations and assessments, worker surveys, and worker interviews and workshops to build a picture of what drives serious harm on ports – who it is happening to, and why. It lays out six key interventions where changes can have a real impact:
- Managing the risk of fatigue
- Enhancing regulatory arrangements (through extending Maritime NZ’s regulatory mandate on health and safety to the port gate)
- Minimum safety standards around loading and unloading of cargo
- Workforce sustainability and training
- Incident reporting and culture
- Better ways of sharing information amongst companies and regulators.
Read the Ports Sector Insight Picture and Action Plan on the Maritime NZ website(external link)
Where to go for more information
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