2023 HSR of the Year Finalists and Overall Winner

The finalists for the 2023 HSR of the Year Awards and this year's winner.

Stephen Rolls became a Health and Safety Representative in 2004 and joined the Health and Safety Committee within the Indigenous Forestry Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and has remained a H&S Rep ever since. He has taken part and led many initiatives over the years including a large upscale of the Health and Safety Plan and committee when multiple agencies merged to one, improvements in communications for remote workers, and significant improvements in Light Utility Vehicle safety procedures, training and competency. Stephen is seen as the 'go-to' guy across the wider Forestry teams, helping people understand both process, equipment and technology. As a Rep Stephen works tirelessly every day as the link between MPI, external training managers and colleagues across the Te Uru Rakau Forestry teams to ensure high standards of safety are set and met on a consistent basis.

Bonnie MacGregor is a Health and Safety Representative and active member of the Health and Safety Committee at ACC's Princes Street site in Dunedin. In addition to her continued commitment to health and safety representative training, she is often involved in shaping new health and safety initiatives. One of the most innovative and effective of these is the 'Impostor Game', created to address the risk of unauthorized access to the site. The game uses fake ID cards and posters, encouraging staff to find the 'impostors'. This has helped workers become more willing to ask to see people's ID cards where these have not been visible. The initiative has been incredibly well received and is now run at other ACC sites beyond Princes Street. Not willing to stop there, Bonnie is presently working on a "Rate my Home Office Setup" competition to promote the importance of workers maintaining their wellbeing while working remotely. 

Nicole Price is a Health and Safety Representative at Auckland Prison, as well as being the current Health and Safety Representative Chairperson. She is a natural leader with the ability to empower and guide others towards become leaders themselves, exemplified in her role as the main driver of Health and Safety Committee meetings. Nicole is always the first to put her hand up for helping with initiatives from coordinating between management and H&S Reps, to attending monthly meetings with the Prison Director. She helps drive cultural change and provide accountability. For example, she keeps on top of overdue items at Health and Safety Committee meetings, encourages staff to put in positive tracker events so their good work would be recognised, and managed to get a full team of HSRs for the Auckland Prison where they previously had very few. Nicole is always working on new projects, such as developing violence and aggression plans or managing hazardous substances.

Sergeant Jennifer Sommerville is a Health and Safety Representative, championing health and safety both within her own team and the wider Royal New Zealand Air Force. Upon posting to her current unit, she conducted a review and identified a backlog of hazardous waste on the compound. Without wasting any time, she created new stakeholder relationships to create an effective, sustainable and revamped system that could remove the hazardous waste appropriately and regularly. With limited supervision and oversight, Jennifer produced what has been described as an impeccable system. Jennifer is continually committed to her own development, engaging a wide range of internal health and safety courses and translating this knowledge into creating a work environment where people are assisted when they say they are not okay. She shifts the workplace culture through her willingness to be a voice for her workmates and challenge any unsafe behaviour. Jennifer recently organised a unit wide health and safety course to upskill the majority of her team, significantly improving their confidence in maintaining quality health and safety practices within the workplace.

Nathan Mills takes a proactive approach towards the health and safety of himself and those around him at Kāinga Ora. After taking on a new tenancy complex in June 2022, where health and safety interventions were minimal, inefficient, and ineffective, Nathan took steps to improve the safety and wellbeing of both the residents and the workers in that area. He achieved this by escalating his concerns and providing options towards improvement, discussing with the asset manager and those familiar with the complex how interventions could be added or changed to ensure the public, contractors and customers are safe, and by involving the residents to ensure they felt heard and were bought into the changes. For example, he helped get a community garden set up, which raised community spirit, supported wellbeing, and excited many of the customers, breaking down barriers between workers and customers by building relationships and trust.

Justin Moore is the Tairawhiti Area Health and Safety Representative for New Zealand Police and demonstrates a commitment to improving health and safety culture and resolving the challenges to health and safety faced by remote police stations. For example, he reported the inability to communicate between stations in severe weather events as a near miss and discussed it with his supervisor, concluding better communication technology was needed, especially given the growing frequency of severe weather events in the region. He presented on the subject to the Area Leadership Team in October 2022, which resulted in the introduction of this improved technology, which has subsequently proven invaluable for these isolated communities. Justine continues to advocate for these improvements in remote regions as the value of clear communication in enabling collaboration, especially during crises such as cyclone Hale, has been demonstrated time and time again. He also evidences his commitment to helping others through participation in events like the Auckland Skytower and Eden Park step-up challenges to raise money for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand.