WorkSafe interim chief executive Steve Haszard resigns months into job

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Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

The interim chief executive at beleaguered Crown agency WorkSafe is stepping down just months after taking the job.

Steve Haszard was appointed last October and leaves in June.

The agency’s board said he came in at a “challenging time” but has now largely completed the priority tasks he was brought in to do.

WorkSafe has been restructuring and narrowing its focus, amid a multi-million-dollar deficit and after cutting scores of jobs.

Its previous chief executive Phil Parkes quit after three years, having faced criticism from health and safety businesses, lawyers and unions over enforcement measures, and struggling with the Whakaari/White Island prosecution after what Parkes had trumpeted as the most extensive and complex investigation ever undertaken by WorkSafe.

The board said Haszard swiftly delivered.

“His considerable experience in regulatory practice, organisational change and strategy development saw him get straight to work on our immediate priorities,” chairperson Jennifer Kerr said.

The board had agreed with Haszard that the start of a new financial year was the right time to hand over to a permanent chief executive.

It would start advertising the role this week.