A 1.5m fall can still kill you

The shortest fatal fall I heard described this week was one and a half metres.

A height you would step off a wall without thinking about it. And it has been sitting in my head ever since, because of what is happening with the Health and Safety reform.

The Bill reported back from Select Committee this week. The big idea is a sharper focus on critical risk and a safe harbour for businesses that follow an Approved Code of Practice. Less paperwork, more focus on what actually hurts people. In principle that is the right direction.

Then you look at the detail on work at height.

Some of our most experienced practitioners are reading the new critical risk test as drawing the line at three metres, a threshold carried over from regulations written back in 1995. Above three metres, critical risk. Below it, the argument goes, outside the net.

The trouble is the data does not respect that number. Most life-changing and fatal falls in this country happen under five metres, and a lot of them under three. The threshold cuts out the exact zone where people are dying.

And here is the part that should make every business owner uneasy. Read the Bill another way and there is a catch-all that could pull a 1.5 metre fall straight back in as a critical risk. Two senior people read the same clause this week and landed in opposite places. If they cannot agree, the owner up the ladder has no chance, and the place that disagreement gets settled is a courtroom, years after someone has already fallen.

That is the gap between what reform promises and what it delivers. The promise is certainty. The reality on the ground is grey.

I am not going to tell you the Bill is good or bad. There are plenty of people shouting that from both sides. What I will tell you is this. The duty to keep your people safe does not pause while the lawyers argue about what three metres means.

So while the system sorts itself out, here is where I would put my energy.

Stop waiting for a number to tell you what is dangerous. Name your critical risks by consequence. The question is not is it over three metres, it is if this goes wrong, can it kill or seriously harm someone. A short fall onto a hard edge answers that on its own.

Find your standard. Where a current code of practice exists, follow it and write down that you did. Where one does not, and for most risks in this country there is no current code at all, anchor to good practice guidance or the relevant ISO standard, and write down what you chose and why. That decision trail is what protects you if anyone ever asks.

Then prove your controls actually work. A control you believe in is not the same as a control you have checked. Evidence beats belief every time.

Clarity is not something a statute hands you. In a world of grey it is something you build, on purpose, before you need it.

If you want a clear read on your own critical risks and where you really stand against the standards that matter, that is the conversation I have with leaders every week. You can grab fifteen minutes with me here.

Stay safe out there.

Matt Jones

Founder of Advanced Safety. Producer of Safety Summit 2026.

P.S. - This is all really about leaders making the call under pressure when the rules are not clear. That is exactly what we built this year's Safety Summit around. 15 October, Christchurch.

More details here: www.safetysummit.co.nz

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