The ultimate event to get you up to speed on the recent trends in everything health and safety
Health & Safety Leaders' Summit
26 - 27 March 2025 | Due Drop Events Centre, Auckland
From management to leadership:
The critical edge to build a safer and healthier workplace
Safety at the crossroads: Creating safe work in a dynamic landscape
About the Summit
2025 marks 10 years since the enactment of the Health and Safety at Work Act. With a current review into the Act underway and WorkSafe New Zealand undergoing refreshing its structure, strategy and operating model, health and safety in New Zealand is at a crossroad.
We are in the middle of one of the most important and consequential periods for health and safety in New Zealand in recent memory. Which makes it crucial to understand how to progress your organisation’s safety agenda in an environment where compliance, best practice and innovation is constantly evolving.
The 2025 New Zealand Health & Safety Leaders’ Summit programme has been curated to address these trends and more. Over two days, we’ll explore the changing safety landscape, and the new and emerging knowledge areas and skill domains required of safety leaders.
We have brought a range of talented local and international speakers together to share their knowledge, passion and experience into practice. The Summit will be an fantastic opportunity to connect with others in the profession meeting similar challenges with passion, purpose and innovation.
We look forward to welcoming you to the summit.
Day 1
The first day will explore a number of themes, including the changing nature of compliance, the evolving legislative and regulatory environment, and will explore how existing ideas around safety measurement, compliance and leadership may need to be challenged to continue to be fit for purpose.
Day 2
The second day will take a more practical approach. You’ll be hearing from health, safety and wellbeing practitioners who have put a range of innovative ideas into practice, including psychosocial risk, decluttering safety, learning teams and more. We’ll also be exploring the skills, competences and knowledge areas needed for safety professionals to continue to be influential and effective.
Key themes
- Effective safety leadership & governance
- Worker participation and involvement
- Psychosocial risk management
- HOP & Learning Teams
Have you ever asked yourself what the difference in management and leadership is?
Here is a simple explanation:
Management:
You’re focus is primarily on day-to-day operations and achieving short-term goals. As a manger, you ensure tasks are completed efficiently, processes are followed, and deadlines are met. You are concerned with things like resource allocation, control, and performance.
Leadership:
You’re focusing on long-term visions and lasting impact. As a leader, you inspire and motivate others to achieve a common goal that goes beyond immediate results. Your legacy is built on the positive change you’ve create for your team, your organisation, and potentially even beyond. You leave people feeling empowered, inspired, and with a sense of purpose.
Let's get you moved from a management mindset to leadership legacy.
Transform yourself to be an expert, innovator and visionary at the Health & Safety Leaders’ Summit 2025. So, you can not only achieve your goals but have a lasting impact!
Join a community of forward-thinking leaders and uncover next-generation strategies and insights to enhance the workplace safety and wellbeing landscape.
What is going to await you:
This summit is not just about keeping up with the pace; it is about shaping your and everyone else’s future.
- Disruptive insights: Explore cutting-edge advancements for safety solutions, predictive analytics for wellbeing, and the rise of the human-centric workplace
- Future-proof strategies: Gain actionable insight to navigate emerging trends, adapt to a changing workforce, and thrive in the years ahead
- Collaborative inspiration: Network with leaders and industry peers, share best practice, and co-create a future where wellbeing and safety are seamlessly integrated
Empower your choice: Craft your perfect conference experience
Day 1 of this summit will provide you with everything you need to know to excel your health & safety leadership!
Day 2 is designed by you. We have two streams and you can decide for each session, which topic is the most relevant to your practice that allows you to drive change.
Choose between:
- Health & Wellbeing at work
- Innovation & Technology in health and safety
Who will be there?
Take a sneak peak: Who will be there?
This summit is your chance to network with industry and occupational leaders and peers that share your passion for health & safety
Industries
Job functions
Venue
The location and how you can get there
Address
Due Drop Events Centre
770 Great South Road, Wiri, Manukau 2104
Agenda
Work In Progress…. We’re currently working on our 2025 agenda
Download the 2024 brochure to get a sneak peak of what might await you next year!
8:30 | Registration and Coffee |
8:55 | Mihi whakatau |
9:00 | Welcoming remarks from the Chairs |
9:10 | International Keynote: Where compliance meets innovation Compliance with rules and requirements is difficult to achieve and costly. Consequently, it can be tempting for organisations to either willfully non-comply, or perhaps more insidiously, ‘surface comply’ by doing the minimum to appear compliant to outsiders. The opposite it ‘deep compliance’, where organisations meet with the spirit (not just the wording) of regulation. Through explaining and differentiating different types of compliance, as well as showcasing a compliance maturity model, Tristan will showcase where compliance meets innovation. Dr Tristan Casey, Director, New View Safety (AUS) |
10:00 | Worksafe Address: Delivering the plan Over the last 12 months WorkSafe New Zealand refreshed its strategy, functional model and operating plan to more effectively undertake its role as an efficient, effective regulator. In this session, WorkSafe New Zealand’s new Chief Executive will outline their approach to delivering on its operating plan. Sharon Thompson, Chief Executive, WorkSafe New Zealand |
10:30 | Morning tea |
11:00 | Panel discussion: Unlocking organisational performance through good health & safety governance The Institute of Directors and WorkSafe New Zealand recently released new guidance material for directors and officers, focusing on refreshed safety governance principles and a clear vision of what ‘good’ looks like. This panel explores the guide and advises how safety professionals can drive better safety governance in their organisation. Chris Jones, Director Global Health, Safety & Wellbeing, Fonterra Craig Marriott, Principal, Craig Marriott Consulting Peter Reidy, CEO, KiwiRail Marie Wisker, Partner, Chapman Tripp |
11:35 | International Keynote: Safety leadership reconsidered Traditional safety leadership models promote the leader as a hero: leading by example as an advocate for good safety practices. But is this model effective in complex, dynamic environments? This session proposes an alternative safety leadership model - one of the leader as host. Host leaders convene people and knowledge across disparate locations, and are defined by curiosity, connectivity and a belief in people as the solution rather than the problem to be solved. Daniel Hummerdal, Director, Safety Innovation & Leadership, Southpac Group (AUS) |
12:15 | Integrated software platforms to drive health and safety improvement
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12:45 | Lunch |
13:45 | Ministerial address Hon Brooke van Velden, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety |
14:05 | Driving influence, understanding and trust through context The core of a safety professional’s success is their ability to communicate and influence across audiences - from the front line to the board room. But to do that effectively requires an understanding of the contexts of those environments and the individuals working in them. This session will show how you can build influence and effectiveness through a focus on context. Jono Brent, Director, In Your Corner |
14:45 | Table reflection: Compliance, simplicity and assurance: how can organisations achieve all three? |
15:00 | Afternoon break |
15:30 | Health and safety legal roundup The last 12 months have seen a number of developments in the legislative framework governing health and safety in New Zealand, as well as plenty of action in the courts. Join us as we cover the latest in law, regulation and enforcement. Grant Nicholson, Partner, Anthony Harper |
16:10 | International Keynote: Random Noise: Measuring Your Company's Safety Performance The old adage suggests that what gets measured gets managed. But what if you’re measuring the wrong things? How can the pursuit of safety through rigid metrics and surveillance lead to 'manufactured insecurity ' eroding trust, autonomy, and professionalism? We end day one by looking at the role that metrics and measurement play in driving behaviours - be they safe or unsafe! Georgina Poole, Health and Safety Leadership Partner, Coca-Cola Europacific partners and Author, ‘Random Noise: Measuring Your Company's Safety Performance’ (AUS) |
16:50 | Summary remarks from the Chair & Networking Drinks |
9:00 | Welcome from the Chairs |
9:05 | International Keynote: Piecing the puzzle together to drive psychological health & safety Workplace wellbeing, mental health and psychological health and safety are interlinked concepts that create safer, healthier work. This session aims to foster a greater understanding of the critical role that employers have in shaping psychologically healthy and safe cultures that can help prevent mental harm and promote wellbeing.
Leora Hornstein, Wellbeing Specialist, Cenovus Energy (Canada) |
9:50 | Understanding the psychosocial hierarchy of controls The hierarchy of controls for physical safety can be adapted to address psychosocial risks. This allows health and safety professionals to better design work and implement the most appropriate controls for the work factors that might be causing harm. This session shows you how to evaluate the right controls along with examples of it being done in practice. Gareth Beck, Safety, Wellbeing & Risk Business Partner – Customer, Z Energy |
10:20 | Utilising EAP services to enhance workplace wellbeing and performance
|
10:40 | Morning tea |
CASE STUDY SERIES | |
11:10 | When people are the solution: harnessing the power of WEPR If we empower workers to be active participants in the creation of safe, healthy work, we get buy-in, performance and engagement. Air New Zealand trialled the use of Safety Scrums for their HSRs to get quick, inclusive buy-in and solutions for emerging safety issues. Rachel Moon will share what worked, what didn't, and how to grow and maintain HSR engagement. Rachel Moon, Senior Manager People Safety Business Partnering, Air New Zealand |
11:40 | Learning teams in practice: making it work The success of a learning-team approach to investigations is in the detail - by building trust and psychological safety into the process. Rebecca Abbott will explore how they successfully used learning teams across Auckland Council – not just post-investigation, but to proactively improve work. Rebecca Abbott, Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing, Auckland Council |
12:10 | Wellington City Council’s multi-layered approaches to workplace wellbeing We know that making a real difference in worker wellbeing goes far beyond the fruit bowl and gym memberships. Mel Fawcett will take us through Wellington City Council’s approach to workplace wellbeing, encompassing te ao Māori, leadership capability, measurement, inclusion, and an individualised employee wellbeing offering. Mel Fawcett, Principal Advisor - Culture, Inclusion and Engagement, Wellington City Council |
12:40 | Lunch |
13:40 | Unlocking the use of data and analytics key to enhance health and safety performance
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14:00 | Decluttering Safety: making safety work actually work! Do all our health and safety policies, SMSs, JSAs actually make workers safer in practice? Or is all that effort spent creating paperwork and processes for nothing? Understand how much safety work is clutter, what makes a difference, what’s a necessary evil and how you can spend your effort in the areas that will make the biggest difference to your people. |
14:40 | Table reflection: What are the areas in which you’ve been able to redesign elements of work or eliminate physical or psychological risks? |
15:00 | Afternoon tea |
15:20 | Cultural Intelligence (CQ): The underutilised tool in the safety leader’s toolkit Building cultural intelligence is an effective way for health and safety professionals to engage diverse worker groups more effectively. People from different backgrounds may work, communicate, make decisions and assess risk very differently - and safety professionals should consider this in how they interact with others. Greg Dearsly, Director, First4Safety Jane Fowles, People & Culture Officer, Dairy Holdings Afele Paea, National Health & Safety Manager, Te Roopu Taurima Michelle Wu, President, Asian Business Health Safety & Environment Network |
16:00 | Closing Panel: The 2030 health and safety leader: how will our skills and talents need to continue to evolve? The past ten years have seen health and safety leaders require a much broader portfolio of skills to succeed, from governance and leadership, to wellbeing, to a deeper understanding of work design. With legislative, technological and economic factors impacting workplaces, how will the profession need to continue to adapt in order to keep our people healthy and safe? Oliver Bones, Principal – Safety, Health Environment and Wellbeing Business Partner, AECOM Vanessa Matakatea, National Lead, H&S Risk & Engagement, Te Whatu Ora Natalee Scripps-Hawkins, Safety, Health & Wellbeing Manager – Assurance, Programs & Systems, Woolworths New Zealand |
16:40 | Closing remarks from the Chair and end of Summit |
Speakers
View the Agenda tab to download the brochure and explore which experts presented in 2024
2025 Speakers will be announced soon!
Speakers
More Info
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Hon Brooke van Velden
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Chris Jones
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Craig Marriott
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Dr Tristan Casey
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Sharon Thompson
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Peter Reidy
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Marie Wisker
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Daniel Hummerdal
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Jono Brent
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Grant Nicholson
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Georgina Poole
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Leora Hornstein
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Gareth Beck
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Rachel Moon
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Rebecca Abbott
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As the Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing currently serving at Auckland Council, Becki brings a wealth of experience to her role, having spent three decades in the education sector as a teacher and sports coach and contributing health and safety advice and operational support to the Outdoor Education sector before becoming a full time Health and Safety professional. Becki worked within operations before moving into strategy and governance.
During her time as a Health and Safety professional in the education sector, Becki gained valuable expertise in managing risks associated with a diverse portfolio of risk, schools are like mini cities.
In her current position at Auckland Council, Becki plays a vital role in supporting Managers and Business Partners who support the council’s extensive, complex, diverse risk landscape. The current HSW team use learning teams not only to support inclusive and collaborative learning in post incident investigations but also to identify opportunities for continuous learning.
Aside from her professional achievements, Becki is an active sports and outdoors enthusiast, having represented New Zealand in both cricket and hockey.
Mel Fawcett
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Greg Dearsly
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Jane Fowles
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Afele Paea
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Michelle Wu
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Oliver Bones
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Vanessa Matakatea
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Natalee Scripps-Hawkins
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Andy Evans
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Brenton Harrison
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Desai Link
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Agenda
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Workshops
Pre-Conference Workshop:
ICAM Differently: Learning from events
25 March 2025 | 9.00 AM – 4.30 PM
This workshop takes participants through the main principles of Safety Differently, then provide hands-on practical skills to attendees on how they can use these principles in the aftermath of an event will be introduced to a framework that repositions compliance as a more complex and nuanced concept than is typically thought. Through sharing the different types of compliance along with the individual, team, leader, and organisational factors that predict these, Dr Tristan Casey will help you to develop a compliance improvement strategy. Leveraging extensive practical examples drawn from a multi-year research program, this workshop will make the underlying ideas tangible and actionable.
Learning objectives
- Understand the different forms of compliance and differentiate them from each other.
- Identify the factors that influence an organisation’s compliance profile.
- Self-assess your organisation’s compliance profile.
- Develop an organisational compliance improvement strategy.
Workshop outline
Understanding Human Error – Take a look at human error and how it is symptom, not an outcome of an event.
Data Gathering – Refresh attendees’ knowledge and understanding of the Data Gathering Phase of Investigations and share tangible tools to assist with this process including PEEPO, Learning Conversations and Learning Teams.
Data Organisation and Timelines – Provide alternatives to the traditional sequence of events that will help highlight system/ organisational gaps building better risk mitigation strategies.
Data Analysis – Learn how to sort through evidence and data in a structured and organised manner that helps to build narrative and context.
Building a Learning Organisation – Revisit building effective corrective actions that drive operational learning and help to build engagement and trust with the frontline.
Facilitated by: Georgina Poole
Georgina Poole is an experienced safety leader currently with expertise in Human and Organizational Performance. She has driven impactful safety programs across industries like mining, construction, and energy. Georgina has also enhanced ICAM course content and facilitated national safety training. An accomplished author, her book co-authored with Sidney Dekker Random Noise – Measuring Your Company’s Safety Performance highlights her innovative approach to safety management. Georgina is also the host of the Leading Safely Podcast, currently listened to in over 100 countries globally. Passionate about safety, Georgina enjoys sharing her insights with professionals as a Keynote speaker in various global forums.
Georgina Poole
Health and Safety Leadership Partner, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Author, ‘Random Noise: Measuring Your Company’s Safety Performance’ (AUS)
Post-Conference Workshop:
Innovating within the lines: Where compliance meets innovation
28 March 2025 | 9.00 AM – 4.30 PM
In this workshop, participants will be introduced to a framework that repositions compliance as a more complex and nuanced concept than is typically thought. Through sharing the different types of compliance along with the individual, team, leader, and organisational factors that predict these, Dr Tristan Casey will help you to develop a compliance improvement strategy. Leveraging extensive practical examples drawn from a multi-year research program, this workshop will make the underlying ideas tangible and actionable.
Learning objectives
- Understand the different forms of compliance and differentiate them from each other.
- Identify the factors that influence an organisation’s compliance profile.
- Self-assess your organisation’s compliance profile.
- Develop an organisational compliance improvement strategy.
Workshop outline
- Compliance is more than just a ‘yes or no’. In the first module, we will learn about the problems and pitfalls of a simplistic approach to compliance. The evidence supporting a new compliance framework, consisting of surface, deep, and adaptive compliance, will be presented and explored. The different forms of each type of compliance will be explained in depth.
- Shifting from surface to deep compliance. Understand the differences between surface and deep compliance, and the factors that can successfully improve deep compliance behaviours.
- Innovating within the lines – adaptive compliance. First, we will aim to understand the benefits of adaptive compliance and what it looks like in practice. Next, we will explore the boundaries and limits to adaptive compliance. Finally, we cover the characteristics of a ‘safe to fail’ environment and discover the practices that encourage adaptive compliance.
- Putting the ideas into practice. In the final module, participants will be able to self-assess their organisation’s compliance profile, and the various antecedents of deep and adaptive compliance. Dr Casey will provide a compliance improvement strategy template and through collaboration, guide participants to complete a strategy for their own organisations.
Facilitated by: Dr Tristan Casey
Dr Tristan Casey is a seasoned ‘scientist-practitioner’ who understands how to generate safety science research with practical impact. With a career in workplace health and safety spanning over 15 years, he has consulted nationally and internationally across a diverse range of industries. Dr Casey is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist with two doctoral degrees. His passion is translating abstract/theoretical concepts into practical tools that have measurable impact. Dr Casey is skilled at forming collaborative partnerships between government, industry, and academia.
Dr Tristan Casey
Director
New View Safety (Australia)
Sponsors
Headline Sponsor
EcoPortal
Gold Sponsor
Umbrella Wellbeing
Exhibitor
New Zealand Red Cross
Notepad Sponsor
Life Care Consultants
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