Historical context of Occupational Health and Safety Legislation in New Zealand: before prescriptive legislation (preperiod) and after (self-managing legislation in two phases; postperiod 1 and postperiod 2)
| Characteristics | Preperiod 1985–1992 | Postperiod-1 1993–2002 | Postperiod-2 2003–2014 |
| No of acts | Various regulations, often industry specific (eg, Bush Workers 1945, Agricultural Workers Act 1977) | Single Act providing comprehensive coverage of work: HSE Act (1992) | Single Act providing comprehensive coverage of work: HSE Amendment Act (2002) |
| Enactment date | Various enactment dates | Enacted April 1993 | Enacted May 2003 |
| Features | Prescriptive regulation | Process regulation | Continuation of process regulation established under HSE Act (1992) |
| Focused on prescribed workplaces within particular industries or on processes. | Broad coverage of nearly all workplaces, duties on employers to manage hazards. | Expanded to include aircraft, ships, volunteers doing regular work, on-the-job trainees, loaned employees | |
| Industry-specific regulation and procedures | Treats hazards with similar procedures (hierarchy of action), whatever the place of work | Additional duty to involve employees in health and safety matters | |
| Compliance based. Inspectors would strictly enforce the law. | Risk based. Self-regulated with reduced enforcement. | Risk based. Self-regulated with reduced enforcement. |
HSE, Health and Safety in Employment.