A visit to Vertical Horizonz New Zealand's Greerton branch on Tuesday has left National MP Michael Woodhouse feeling encouraged.

The Minister for Immigration, Revenue, plus Workplace Relations and Safety spent the day touring the Bay of Plenty visiting various organisations and industries that fall under his three portfolios.

Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse during a visit to Vertical Horizonz NZ on Tuesday. Photo: Chris Callinan.

With Bay MP Todd Muller in tow, Michael visited several organisations including Inland Revenue Deparmtent's Tauranga office, Zespri and New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated, along with Vertical Horizonz.

'Todd's been keen to get me into the region to do a series of visits in terms of my different responsibilities,” says Michael.

'It was particularly good to spend time talking to organisations like Zespri and NZ Kiwifruit Growers, especially with a massively growing horticulture sector, particularly around kiwifruit, and the demands the sector brings for labour supply.

'It was good to hear the great things that are going on, but also the challenges those organisations face in terms of immigration, plus health and safety.”

His final visit of the day was to Vertical Horizonz which provides workplace and industrial health and safety training across New Zealand, Australia and the Middle East.

Michael was taken on a tour of the organisation's Greerton branch by CEO Carl Mconie and watched on while training manager Marcus Bathan and quality manager Phil Hokianga demonstrated how they delivered various aspects of their training.

With the new Health and Safety Reform Bill passing into law on April 1 and the country's track record of workplace injuries and deaths, Michael appreciated seeing and hearing first-hand how training is delivered.

'By any measure, we're not that good at keeping each other safe at work. But I think we're on a really positive path of reform, not only in terms of the law reform, but actually in the way people think about health and safety.

'It was an encouraging very reaffirming visit, the key messages I'm hearing when talking to industries are exactly what Carl and his team are seeing and hearing on the ground.”

Michael says currently there are hundreds of organisations across the country that are doing all they can to improve their performance in health and safety.

But he admits there's varying degrees of effort – some see it as a compliance issue, but some are genuinely committed to making sure they do better.

'Every industry is at different points on a maturity scale, so in a way it was really helpful for me to have those perceptions that I have affirmed by what Carl and his team are saying on the ground.”