A coroner will hold a series of inquests into forestry workers' deaths with the aim of identifying systemic issues within the country's deadliest industry.
The move, which will see five inquests held in Bay of Plenty from March next year, follows similar clusters of inquests into cycling and quad bike deaths.
It comes as unions and the industry push ahead with an independent review of safety in the forestry industry.
Chief Coroner Neil MacLean said grouping the inquests together could cast light on systemic issues.
"The idea is that you look at more than one death - perhaps you'll get a better perspective or picture," he said.
"It's a very cost-effective and sensible way of getting not just the immediate facts from the witnesses and the people involved, but also then a broader expert perspective on what conclusions perhaps could be drawn from those facts - or, more importantly, whether there are any sensible recommendations that perhaps could be made."
The inquests would be conducted by Bay of Plenty Coroner Wallace Bain, who is based in forestry bastion Rotorua.
The Chief Coroner's office has already laid the groundwork with an analysis of six years of forestry-related deaths, including logging truck fatalities.
The analysis, published on Friday, shows there has been an average of five forestry deaths a year between July 2007 and August this year.
It found 39 per cent of deaths were due to tree felling and almost a quarter were due to breaking out, which involves the gathering and hauling of logs to skid sites.
The analysis noted the sector had the highest rate of workplace injury deaths in New Zealand, with six so far this year alone. The number of serious incidents was on the rise, with 188 serious harm notifications last year - the highest in five years.
Judge MacLean said it was a "sobering read".
"It's not pleasant reading to see the size of the problem. The other thing to remember is this only shows the tip of the iceberg - that is, the people who were actually killed.
"What we can't look at, but someone needs to look at as part of the bigger picture, is all the people who are maimed or injured, often very badly ... It may not kill you but you've lost your job, you can't work."
The high injury rate is among the issues to be tackled by an independent safety review, whose stakeholders include unions, workers, forestry owners and industry organisations.
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the groups were in the process of finalising the terms of reference and nominating review panel members.
She said the coroner's analysis of forestry deaths would be useful.
"It should be one of the core bits of evidence in the review, but clearly it doesn't deal with a whole lot of fundamental issues about the structure of the industry, because it looks at each death on its own."
Ms Kelly said the series of inquests next year was an "opportunity to look for patterns".
However, it was disappointing that previous coroner's recommendations, on issues such as working in bad weather or double-anchoring trees, had not been adopted in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) new code of practice for safety in the industry.
Labour Minister Simon Bridges agreed the number of fatalities among forestry workers was too high and the safety record was unacceptable.
He said the new code of practice showed long-term commitment to change from the industry, workers and MBIE.
That was being supported with a strong enforcement approach and assessments of all 330 logging contracting operations in the country.
The Government has ruled out launching its own inquiry into the forestry sector, but Mr Power said he would encourage MBIE to provide support for an industry-led review.
"My point has always been that we know the problems and are working collaboratively on solutions. Now is a time for action; not more inquiries."
- by Matthew Backhouse
