What is an HSWA Site Safety Plan?
Short answer
An HSWA Site Safety Plan is the New Zealand equivalent of an Australian SWMS — a site-specific document under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) that captures hazards, controls, worker engagement and PCBU duties for the work being done. It is the standard expectation on commercial construction sites in NZ.
New Zealand's Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) does not use the term "SWMS". The standard construction-site document is a Site Safety Plan (sometimes called a Health and Safety Plan, or for trades a Task Analysis) prepared by the PCBU(s) carrying out the work.
A Site Safety Plan typically covers:
- The scope of work and high-risk activities (which may engage WorkSafe NZ Approved Codes of Practice — ACOPs — for excavation, scaffolding, working at heights, EWPs, confined spaces, demolition, forestry).
- Hazards arising from the work and from the site.
- Controls applied using the hierarchy: elimination, then minimisation per HSWA s.17.
- Worker engagement and participation under HSWA ss.56–66 (HSRs, HSC).
- Emergency arrangements and notifiable-event protocols (HSWA s.23–25 and s.56).
- Site induction, on-site supervision, sign-on/off.
Principal contractors and main contractors will typically have their own template they expect subcontractors to fit, similar to the AU pattern.
RAE IQ generates an HSWA Site Safety Plan with PCBU duties (s.36), ACOP citations and worker engagement evidence built in — not a generic Task Analysis.