Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I turn to this very important piece of legislation, I would like to acknowledge the students from Claremont Meadows Public School who are in the gallery. They are constituents of my colleague, the member for Lindsay. Hopefully, they are furthering their education and seeing how we conduct ourselves here in the House. So I am assuming that they will not be here for question time.

As I said, the legislation before the House, the Safe Work Australia Bill 2008 and associated bill, is very important. There are risks associated with any job, and far too often people get hurt or even killed in their places of employment. Injuries sustained at work can cause physical and emotional damage which may extend for lengthy periods of time or throughout a person’s career. A large number of deaths occur in workplaces all over the world—and supporting working families should be near and dear to all of us. The statistics show that in Australia alone more than 300 people lose their lives during the course of their work and many more die as a result of a work related disease.

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