A construction worker in Rotorua finishes a shift without incident. A warehouse operator in South Auckland clocks out safely. A forestry crew in the East Coast makes it home. Multiply those uneventful days by thousands, and you get this: 32,916 serious injuries to Māori workers in 2024, down from 74,934 just three years earlier.

That's not a rounding error. That's 42,018 fewer people ending up in ACC's serious injury statistics. (Source: Stats NZ / ACC, fatal-serious-injuries)

While today's news covered a single dog attack in Timaru, this data tells the story of tens of thousands of injuries that didn't happen. The kind that don't make headlines precisely because they were prevented.

The drop didn't happen gradually. From 2020 to 2021, Māori workplace injuries were climbing: 72,756 to 74,934. Then something shifted. By 2022, the number had halved to 34,086. It's held steady since, sitting at 32,916 in 2024.

What changed between 2021 and 2022? The data doesn't answer that directly, but the timing matters. COVID-19 workplace safety protocols were still in force. Industries with high injury rates, particularly construction and forestry where Māori workers are over-represented, had tightened safety standards under health orders. Some high-risk work simply stopped.

But here's the thing: the numbers stayed low even as those restrictions lifted. 33,675 injuries in 2023. 32,916 in 2024. Whatever caused that initial drop, something stuck.

This isn't about declaring victory. Nearly 33,000 people still got hurt badly enough at work last year to end up in ACC's serious injury data. That's 90 Māori workers every single day. But it's also 115 fewer than in 2021, every day, for three years straight.

The broader picture: in 2000, when this dataset begins, serious injuries to Māori workers numbered 25,839. The number climbed for two decades, peaking in 2021. Now it's back below where it started, despite New Zealand's workforce growing substantially in that time.

Every one of these numbers represents someone who didn't come home from work the same way they left. A parent. A partner. A 24-year-old starting their career. But the trajectory matters too. When 42,000 fewer people get seriously hurt over three years, that's 42,000 families who didn't get that phone call, didn't spend months in recovery, didn't face the financial crater that ACC claims can only partially fill.

The data doesn't explain itself. It doesn't tell us which worksites got safer, which industries changed, which specific interventions worked. But it does tell us this: something fundamental shifted in New Zealand workplaces between 2021 and 2022, and Māori workers, who have historically faced higher injury rates, are experiencing the benefit.

The question now isn't just what changed. It's whether we know enough to keep it that way.