'We'll fix it up after the election' - NZ First to vote for health and safety reforms

New Zealand First will vote in favour of health and safety reforms that families of Pike River victims are protesting, despite disagreeing with the changes.

Party leader Winston Peters says he is hamstrung by the coalition agreement, but promises to "fix it" after the election.

Pike River campaigners Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse are in Wellington, hoping to persuade politicians to reject legislation they say risks a workplace disaster.

The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill proposes a radical shake up of New Zealand's health and safety laws.

Osborne said the government was weakening workplace protections she had worked hard to strengthen, and hoped Peters would vote against it.

But just prior to a meeting with Osborne and Rockhouse on Tuesday, Peters said he would vote in favour because he had to honour the coalition agreement.

"It's not agree to disagree, we don't like it, we'll say so, but we're caught by the coalition agreement on this matter," he said.

"Only four and a half months to go, but we'll fix it up after the election."

He repeated earlier statements that Pike River was a "murder site" which was never investigated properly.

"And here we are... again, loosening the rules and loosening the criteria of safety to the future damage of people like those miners, and that's why New Zealand First is saying, 'look, we can't fix it now, we'll fix it straight after the 2026 election'."

The bill - introduced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden in February - would reverse many of the changes brought in by the 2015 Health and Safety at Work Act, which was passed in response to the Pike River tragedy, which killed 29 workers in November 2010.

Van Velden said on Tuesday that consultation with unions, businesses, and workers revealed they overwhelmingly felt the law was too complicated, and needed simplifying.

"It is not the case that we're going to see widespread accidents," she said.

"People want to do the right thing, they want to know what the right thing to do is, and we're here as a government to actually help them and clarify the law."

The Education and Workforce Select Committee has returned its final report on the bill, and it is now due for its second reading.

The Green and Labour parties opposed the bill.