Worksafe And ACC - Concerns Over Farm Safety

Worksafe has highlighted how important it is to take care of health and safety on farms. According to their data, there are more fatalities on farms than in any other industry. While ACC data shows that farm injuries are trending downwards, the worst effects of unsafe conditions on farms are felt by those of retirement age and above, followed by children aged up to 19.

Greg Peters from Worksafe is quoted in a recent Stuff article reminding farmers that children or family members must be treated as workers with regards to safety measures. There is a “difference between a farmer’s child who rode a motocross bike […] for fun, and when the same child used the bike to round up cows,” he said.

Farm vehicle and bike accidents made up the majority of ACC claims, with those aged 65+ being the worst affected. Peters noted that “ACC offers subsidies for farmers” to have seatbelts and rollers bars installed in their farm vehicles.

DairyNZ has a guide on health and safety, which you can see here, that includes guides and factsheets from WorkSafe for your use in safeguarding your farm. Worksafe also provides comprehensive, easy to understand guidelines on their own website.

BACK TO NEWS>

What Our Customers Think

Great local Accountants. They provide an excellent service with great explanations for the layman. They provide accounting services for non rural clients too.

Quinn Wilson, Restaurant Owner, The Wagon
What Our Customers Think


Rural Accountants is a real asset to our business.

The team at Rural Accountants pretty much manage all our administrative tasks for the group including payroll and tax planning, ensuring we don’t pay any more than necessary. They are at the forefront of technology and have helped us get up and running with Xero and Figured which is much more efficient than the way we used to work.

Sam Jones, Managing Director, Sybton Farm Ltd Partnership
What Our Customers Think


Christine is very knowledgeable, great to deal with and knows our business well. She is also a sheep & beef farmer so knows the industry really well and understands our needs.

Rural Accountants keeps us on track through strategic and forward planning meetings throughout the year. Christine knows our business inside out so she can deal with our questions instantly.

Mathew & Gemma Barham, Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year 2012
What Our Customers Think

What Our Customers Think

I used to work out my GST and process it manually which would take me at least a full day every two months. The team set up reconcilliation rules and other quick tools, and showed me how to do all my reconcilliations and process my GST returns through Xero which now takes me no time at all!

Mike O'Neill, Financial Services Northland Ltd
What Our Customers Think


As a farmer, Christine understands our business and how farmers and growers operate.

We use Rural Accountants to provide a full accounting service to an orcharding partnership which operates a number of orchards with a wide spread of varieties and management systems. Rural Accountants are always timely and accurate, and their annual financial accounts are extremely easy to understand and very grower-friendly.

Paul Jones, Orchardist