Health & Safety

New Zealand’s been facing some of the coldest mornings of the year. Temperatures in parts of the South Island have plunged to -7 degrees. MetService recorded minus seven at Mount Cook and Pukaki, with Twizel dropping even further to minus 7.5, while Taupo in the North Island shivered through a morning low of minus 5.1. […]

The most dangerous thing on a construction site is not the fall or the machine. In Australia, construction workers take their own lives at a rate of 25.7 per 100,000, against 14.3 per 100,000 for other employed men, and suicide is by a clear margin the leading cause of death in the trade. New Zealand’s […]

Work-related disease kills far more building workers than falls, vehicles and machinery, and WorkSafe NZ estimates it claims between 750 and 900 lives across the nation’s workforce every year. Measured against the acute toll that dominates site safety, a worker is 15 times more likely to die from a disease the job caused than from […]

The Live Well, Build Well initiative began in late 2022 to help residential construction workers improve their mental health and wellbeing. Backed by the Mental Health Foundation and ACC, the programme is designed to help builders and tradies build the mental strength and resilience needed to cope with the demands of working in a challenging […]

Canterbury’s meth use is now almost 40% above its average level from last year, recent wastewater testing shows. National consumption has risen to an estimated 36.6kg per week.  This level of methamphetamine use has a weekly social harm cost of almost $40 million. Cocaine use has decreased since it spiked in the October 2025 quarter, […]

When MATES in Construction NZ heard from more than 2300 workers through the 2025 Industry Well-being Survey, supported by ASB, the message was clear: connection matters. Not in a vague or abstract way, but in the everyday moments that shape life on site. In fact, 27% of workers said mateship and social connection positively contributed […]