Court ruling underlines expectations of CEOs

Last month the High Court upheld the conviction of former Ports of Auckland CEO, Tony Gibson, in the Gibson v Maritime New Zealand case. Gibson was convicted for failing to meet officer due diligence duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) after a falling container killed stevedore Pala’amo Kalati. 

The Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum have since reviewed the case and made suggestions on how the High Court’s decision establishes case law to inform our leadership and governance practices. 

Its critical insight from the case is that CEOs can rely on the expertise and judgement of others, but only when they have made proper enquiries, tested that advice, and followed up to ensure issues are actually addressed. In other words, critical risk controls need to be working in practice. Implicit in that is that once an officer is on notice of potential system weaknesses, a reasonable officer is expected to do more to close the loop. 

The importance of teamwork and being on the same page

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has released its inquiry on a near miss event involving an aircraft that aborted its takeoff.  

A Q300 aircraft was taking off and after the aircraft had passed V1 (the point where the pilot should not reject take-off), the first officer became increasingly concerned about a flock of birds approaching the take-off path. The first officer reduced the rate of rotation to stay below the birds, while still intending to continue the take-off. However, the captain saw the reduced rotation and believed the first officer was rejecting the take-off. The captain immediately reduced power and applied hard braking. 

The aircraft overran the end of the runway by about five metres. There were no injuries or damage to the aircraft. 

TAIC’s inquiry found that two pilots did not share the same understanding of what was happening. That breakdown in communication led to a rejected take-off above the maximum permitted decision speed, and the runway overrun.

Fortunately nothing happened, but it made me think about the importance of being on the same page as your team. There’ve been many occasions, at work and at home, when I’ve thought I was thinking something similar to someone else, only to find that wasn’t the case! 

WorkSafe findings could have wider benefits to those travelling off-road  

WorkSafe announced last year that forestry roads nationwide are set to become safer, thanks to a new agreement between with one of the country’s largest forest management companies. 

This follows a tragic fatal crash involving a truck and trailer rolling while negotiating a tight bend on a Coromandel forestry road in May 2023 and WorkSafe’s investigation finding the design, maintenance, and risk assessment of the road was inadequate. 

Consequently, among other things, Forest360 has agreed to an enforceable undertaking wherein they will sponsor the development of software that helps forest owners and operators identify unsafe road conditions. 

While at Z I spent some time with our Mini-tanker fleet which specialised in direct machine refuelling. That involved a considerable amount of off-road travel to service activities like forestry and road construction projects. Livestock transport is another activity where off-road travel is common. I quickly developed a heightened awareness of the risks with those environments.  

Transporting New Zealand will be making enquiries and efforts to ensure that similar risks across our industry can be alleviated. 

Dom Kalasih, Chief Executive of Transporting New Zealand