In 2021, 74,934 Māori workers were seriously injured on the job in New Zealand. The next year, that number dropped to 34,086. Then 33,675. Now 32,916.

That's not a gradual decline. That's a cliff edge.

For two decades, serious injuries among Māori workers held remarkably steady. The 2000s saw numbers in the 50,000 to 60,000 range. The 2010s pushed higher, peaking at 69,237 in 2018. By 2020, the count hit 72,756. (Source: Stats NZ / ACC, fatal-serious-injuries)

Then 2022 arrived, and the trajectory broke. The injury count halved almost overnight. And it has stayed there.

This isn't about fewer Māori workers. Employment data shows Māori workforce participation increased during this period. So what happened between 2021 and 2022 that made workplaces abruptly safer for Māori employees?

The timing points to COVID. Not the virus itself, but the workplace transformations it forced. Remote work eliminated commuting injuries and reduced exposure to high-risk environments. Industries with heavy Māori employment, particularly construction and manufacturing, faced labour shortages that gave workers more bargaining power over safety conditions. The pandemic also triggered sweeping changes to health and safety protocols that many workplaces maintained.

But here's the critical part: the drop stuck. Even as COVID restrictions lifted and workers returned to physical workplaces, the injury rate didn't climb back. Whatever changed in 2022 became the new baseline.

This matters because Māori workers have historically faced higher injury rates than the general workforce. They're overrepresented in physically demanding industries: forestry, construction, meat processing, transport. These sectors carry inherent risks that don't disappear with a safety memo.

Yet somehow, between 2021 and 2024, New Zealand cut the serious injury rate for Māori workers in half and kept it there. That's 40,000 fewer families getting the hospital phone call each year. Forty thousand fewer workers facing months of recovery, reduced income, permanent impairment.

The data doesn't tell us which specific changes drove this result. It could be better safety equipment, stronger enforcement, changed work practices, or economic shifts that moved workers out of the riskiest roles. It might be all of those things at once.

What it does tell us is this: when serious workplace injuries among Māori workers dropped from 74,934 to 32,916 in the space of three years, and that lower number held steady, something worked. The question facing policymakers and industry now is whether they know what it was, and whether they're committed to protecting it.