The health and safety of the almost 600 people who enter our site each day – staff, contractors, customers, and other stakeholders – is our priority, and we work hard to ensure everyone goes home safe, every day.
We have a policy of ‘see something, say something, do something’, and expect all port staff and users to report safety risks or concerns. Our online Risk Manager portal is a quick and easy-to-use system for risks or concerns to be recorded and then action taken.
We have strict and comprehensive induction and permit-to-work procedures, to ensure all who enter the secure port operations area understand their safety responsibilities. We also have a no drug or alcohol policy for all who enter our sites, and all areas of Port Taranaki are smokefree.
Port Safety Advisory Group (PSAG)
Our executive leadership and health and safety teams ensure that the health and safety systems and procedures are in place so that our staff and all persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) on-site understand their responsibilities.
This is carried through to port user groups, including the Port Safety Advisory Group (PSAG), which includes representatives from our port users and meets four times a year to share and discuss health and safety issues and developments. The PSAG group enables us to work alongside our customers, multiple users and lessees of the port to better understand and resolve health and safety issues.
Operating Licence
In partnership with port operators, we work to ensure the operations on-site are safe, the port is secure, and the environment everyone works in and alongside is looked after.
To formalise this, we have established an Operating Licence, which is a set of conditions and standards that make clear the responsibilities operators have regarding safety, security, and environmental compliance when working at the port.
Our port operators have been quick to sign on, showing their commitment to on-site health and safety and the environment.
Asbestos
We’re working through an asbestos management plan, with the aim to remove or make secure asbestos material that is in buildings across our site.
Many older buildings have been dismantled and the cladding of others removed as part of this work.
For this work we employ a specialist asbestos-handling company, which dismantles and removes the material from the site and rectifies the soil around the area.
All health and safety precautions are followed throughout, including the containment of the buildings and use of exclusion areas around the work site.
The health and safety of all port users during this work is our priority.
COVID-19
As a border operation, Port Taranaki has been on the front line in the battle against COVID-19.
Throughout the response to the pandemic, we have followed all Ministry of Health and Maritime New Zealand regulations and taken our responsibilities as a border operation extremely seriously – we want to keep our staff, our port operators and the community safe.
All our border-facing staff wear personal protection equipment (PPE), including face masks, when interacting with visiting vessels, practise social distancing, wash hands regularly, and take regular COVID-19 tests.
We have also supported the COVID-19 vaccination programme and encourage all our staff and port users to take up the vaccination offer. All our border-facing staff deemed affected by the Government Border Order regulations are double vaccinated.
For more information about COVID-19 regulations regarding the maritime industry and ports, please see the below