7 October 2020

WorkSafe has appointed Karl Maddaford as National Manager Critical Response.

Mr Maddaford brings both national and international experience to the role, with a career including service with the United Nations and the New Zealand Defence Force, and more recently seconded by NZDF to the Pike River Recovery Agency.

In the newly established WorkSafe role, he will head a team responsible for managing WorkSafe’s major incident response, victim services, coronial services, and proactive intervention functions. These focus on being supported by a lessons learnt process.

“Whether someone has been injured themselves, or they have lost a loved one, understanding WorkSafe’s role and any judicial proceedings can be an added challenge to an already difficult time. In my role, I will be standing up a team dedicated to servicing the needs of victims and their families,” said Mr Maddaford.

The interventions and responses by WorkSafe following a workplace incident, or near misses may also provide the catalysts for change that other businesses need.

“One of the great things about New Zealand businesses is that we are generally very willing to share our path to progress. We need to look at how we can do this in health and safety as well.”

Businesses with a pattern of incidents or concerns can also expect to be under the spotlight with Maddaford’s direction.

“At times, businesses do struggle to get things right and we can see certain patterns of harm or near misses emerging. There is an opportunity to address systemic failures in an organisation or industry – and we need to be tackling this at the source of the issue, not after an incident has occurred.”