Wellington, Aug 19 (IANS): Nearly half of New Zealanders are affected by a workplace incident to themselves, colleagues, family, or friends, a report said on Monday.

The cost of poor workplace health and safety performance, including the cost of lost lives and earnings, serious injury costs to the government's Accident Compensation Corporation, and health issues, rose to 4.9 billion NZ dollars ($2.97 billion) last year, the report said.

That cost was 4.4 billion NZ dollars ($2.67 billion) in 2022, according to the report of the Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum, which has been committed to reporting annually on the performance of New Zealand's health and safety system, Xinhua news agency reported.

New Zealand is falling behind its overseas counterparts when it comes to workplace health and safety, it said.

The country has a 60 per cent higher fatality rate than Australia and the rate is 500 per cent higher than Britain, despite all three countries having similar legislative settings, the report said.

"A worker in New Zealand is twice as likely to die than they are in Australia," said the forum's chief executive Francois Barton.

About 50 per cent had a positive perception of New Zealand's health and safety performance and response following an incident at work, the report said.

Labour Party's workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich called for effective investment in WorkSafe, New Zealand's primary workplace health and safety regulator, so it can undertake its important role, in investigation and investment in injury prevention.