Widow wants voice at inquiry
Forestry widow Deborah McMillan – with of a photo of her late husband Shane Frater – wants to be involved in an inquiry into the industry. Industry’s turnaround on safety a big surprise, reports Matt Bowen. Forestry widow Deborah McMillan wants a say on a multi-agency inquiry into safety governing the industry that killed her husband.
It was four years ago when Shane Frater, 28, left for work and didn’t come home. He was killed instantly on a forestry block near the NapierTaupo Rd and took his place among the statistics: 33 deaths and 874 serious injuries since 2008.
But yesterday Ms McMillan was coming to terms with a different shock. In an apparent U-turn, the Forest Owners Association has agreed to take a long hard look at forestry safety and try to come up with solutions. And Ms McMillan wants to be part of it.
She has not heard from any of the stakeholders and fears the ‘‘independent’’ claim could be lip service.
‘‘Up until [Wednesday] night, they said a whole different story,’’ Ms McMillan said in her home at Pukete, Hamilton. ‘‘It was great to hear, but it needs to be an independent inquiry. I think all the families that have lost loved ones in forestry should be consulted about how and what is being done throughout the process.’’
Industry representatives are emphatic that the inquiry will be independent and thorough.
The Forest Industry Contractors Association (Fica) represents the companies whose employees do the harvesting. Its chief executive, John Stulen, said the inquiry would be ‘‘absolutely’’ independent.
It was the association that sparked the move in March after a string of four deaths drew attention to the fact there was a problem. The other factor was the ‘‘long-term injury frequency’’ which is benchmarked against other countries.
Mr Stulen said it started to go haywire midway through last year after four years of increasing harvests and decreasing serious harm incidents.
‘‘We were watching this going: ‘This isn’t looking good’. And of course it carried on beyond that, which is why we joined with the forest owners to do something.’’
Forest Owners Association health and safety training committee chairman Sheldon Drummond said the inquiry would begin within a month and take six months.
He would not reveal the terms of reference word for word. Simply put, ‘‘it’s how do we improve the human factor safety for the forestry sector in New Zealand’’, he said.
‘‘It’s pretty all-encompassing – you don’t want to lock anything out.’’
Stakeholders will include forest owners, contractors, workers, government departments, experts and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions.
Council president Helen Kelly is pleased that the industry acknowledged it could learn something from an inquiry.
Mr Drummond said it would be based on a similar process in British Columbia about three years ago that produced ‘‘significant’’ improvements.
‘‘I can assure you the leader of [the inquiry] will not be from Fica or the Forest Owners Association.’’
If things changed as a result, Ms McMillan said it would ease her burden and perhaps give daughter Skyla some answers. ‘‘It’s hard when you hear of another forestry death because you know what they’re going through. Most of these guys have got young kids and it’s the children who really suffer – I think Skyla deserves the answers.’’