Chatswood serves the life and health insurance sector in New Zealand with market intelligence, data, and bespoke consulting services. Some of these are provided in conjunction with Quality Product Research Limited - a subsidiary that brings you Quotemonster.
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Proposed changes to Health and Safety Laws
We take a look at the proposed changes to Health and Safety laws, whereby the government wants to reduce compliance costs and provide greater certainty for businesses.
You may have seen the proposed changes to Health and Safety laws, whereby the government wants to reduce compliance costs and provide greater certainty for businesses. Bell Gully have a good summation of the proposed reforms here, but basically the Government is endeavouring to reduce the compliance burden, clarify health and safety duties (including limiting obligations for small, low-risk businesses) and clarify the distinction between governance and operational health and safety responsibilities.
There are many opposing points of view on the changes. Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff has said
"It's disappointing to see the minister has ignored the widespread consensus on what New Zealand needs to do to improve its poor track record and instead has chosen to carve out small businesses from good health and safety practices.
Exempting small businesses from best practice health and safety makes no sense when we know that small business are riskier and need more support."
Institute of Directors general manager Guy Beatson said
"Clarifying that boards are accountable for risk management and safety culture - not hands-on management - will mean directors can better focus on their core governance role without inadvertently overstepping."
Mike Cosman, chair of the Institute of Safety Management said
"The reforms are focused instead on costs to businesses of prevention and not the much greater costs of harm.
This seems to be looking through the wrong end of the telescope to us because the cost of our poor health and safety record is north of $4.9 billion per year to say nothing of the impact on workers and their families."
Russell Hutchinson has taken a look at the proposed regulations and put in his two cents.
As a country we have a not-terrible, but not-so-good track record on health and safety. One measure is fatal accidents, here I have selected countries we often use in comparisons:
Clearly, we are not as bad as, say, the United States. If we delved into that we would see significant variation on a state-by-state basis – but let’s not worry about that for now. Compared to Australia, for roughly every three people who die in a workplace accident there, four will die here. Not so good. What’s surprising is how well the UK performs – better than France and much of the EU, and better than Japan, places I normally consider to be better organised and more prescriptive in terms of employee protections. Not so! I like it when we find good data which challenges my pre-existing view. It’s a reward for paying attention to the data.
Are the proposed changes to governance liability right or wrong? One argument could be that by reducing liability on directors the workplace will become less safe. Another view is that by ensuring we place responsibility on the people who are closest to the problem we will better target the point at which better decisions can be made. Probably we will not know which until we have seen this operate for some time. Progress always seems to be so slow. Incentives also count – and the role of ACC, which has many benefits to our economy, also has some negative effects, somewhat masking the price signal in this case. I wonder if that will also get talked about.
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nib research finds more adults are staying on top of essential health screenings
Recent nib research has found that more adults are staying on top of essential health screenings, but costs remain a barrier.
Recent nib research has found that more adults are staying on top of essential health screenings, but costs remain a barrier. The research was carried out in February 2025 and surveyed 1,010 Kiwi, building on the last survey conducted in December 2023. Some of the key findings include:
An increasing number of adults are keeping up with necessary health screenings - up to date with eye checks (45% up from 43%), dental check-ups (36% up from 35%), and heart health screenings (31% up from 28%).
30% believe their health is better than their peers, up from 25% in 2023.
Financial concerns are increasingly preventing Kiwi adults from accessing health checks, with 36% citing cost as a barrier (up from 29%).
80% of those with health insurance are committed to health screening checks (vs 72% overall).
More parents feel clear about which screening checks their children need (72% up from 58% in 2023).
More parents believe an annual health check is essential for their children (84% up from 75% in 2023).
More children are staying up to date with common screening tests - hearing checks (54% up from 48%), dental check-ups (66% up from 55%), eye checks (57% up from 50%) and general health exams (59% up from 57%).
Rob Hennin, Chief Executive Officer at nib New Zealand, said
“Proactive health screenings can be lifesaving and it’s really encouraging to see that Kiwi are taking the reins when it comes to their wellbeing. It’s clear to see that accessibility and cost issues continue to be barriers.”
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Jason Gunn announced as new AIA Vitality Ambassador
Gallagher introduce new fundraising initiative, Gallagher Club Kickback
Partners Life go live with “no signature required” for majority of policy administration processes
mySolutions roadshows run across May in Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland
mySolutions webinar 'Exclusive Small Business Group Health' is on 23 April
Financial Advice NZ are holding an Ethics Workshop on 8 May
TAP webinar 'Ready to see TAP in action?' 8 May
Westpac launches a pilot for a basic transactional bank account