Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid for bringing this very important issue to the notice of the House. I have just got off the phone to Vicki Hamilton, the CEO of GARDS, the Gippsland Asbestos Related Disease Support group. Vicki herself lost both her father and her grandfather to asbestos related diseases, and she raised a number of issues. It says in one of her notes about one of the people she supports:

Asbestos support groups are a very unique thing, not only do we have a common foe but the disease is incurable, so the people who come to our group find it difficult to go to other cancer support groups and sit with people who have breast cancer, because they have a hope of being cured, whereas those with an asbestos-related disease know there is no cure.

GARDS began in 1991 as an afternoon cup of tea to support the increasing number of widows in the Latrobe Valley, and eventually they started asking questions about the lack of services available. GARDS has spread asbestos awareness information throughout the area, supported families through support group meetings and free medical equipment to make life more bearable and kept those families connected with the information they need. GARDS has also advocated new drugs, conducted research and worked with the occupational health and safety regulations and awareness campaigns. Their lobbying brought a $21 million regional hospital to the Latrobe Valley in 2006. Up until then, 80 per cent of cancer patients at the Monash Medical Centre at Springvale in Melbourne were people commuting from the Latrobe Valley.

According to Vicki Hamilton, the power station in the Latrobe Valley was warned of the dangers of asbestos by the United Kingdom in the late thirties, yet the problem had manifested itself beyond control or care—it was everywhere. According to Vicki, ‘Any house built up until the late 1980s will have asbestos in it, whether it is under the eaves or floor or in textured paints and tiles et cetera.’ Vicki says that although asbestos is, ‘a really wonderful product, it’s a pity it kills you.’ With no cure and with limited knowledge of asbestos related diseases, Vicki says:

It doesn’t matter who you are, everyone will breathe into their lungs asbestos fibres, we will all breathe them in, they are in our environment, what triggers you to succumb to an asbestos disease nobody knows yet.’

There needs to be a lot more scientific research on that issue. A man walked into the Vicki’s office five years ago and said that, out of a group of 33 men who worked under the same conditions in the Latrobe Valley, he was the only one who was still alive and had no signs of an asbestos related disease. Elaine Callow was living the reality of the kind of devastation that the disease can wreak on people’s lives, and many others in the Latrobe Valley were suffering alongside her. People said to Elaine, ‘You poor thing.’ But Elaine said: ‘I don’t want that; I just want the word to be out there to stay away from it, keep away from this disease. It’s just hanging around, waiting to get the next person and there is nothing you can do about it.’

Vale to Elaine Callow. Elaine lost her battle with mesothelioma on 4 September 2010. Elaine was held in high esteem by the GARDS organisation and will be sadly missed. But she will not be forgotten. Her memory will live on in those who knew her well. She would want us to go on making a difference in the lives of others affected by this deadly carcinogen. She would want us to keep up the fight to rid Australia of this deadly material and to eventually eradicate it from our communities, where it is killing 3,000 people a year. We will miss you very much, Elaine; we enjoyed our visits with you in those last few months. Elaine was one of the GARDS treasures. Rest in peace, Elaine; your battle is now over—till we meet again, 1936 to 2010.

In my closing remarks I want to say what Vicki said to me on the phone. She said we need a whole-of-government approach with every area of government activity looking closely at this matter, and we need housing audits so that, if you go to buy a house, there has actually been an asbestos audit on that house and you know before you buy that house exactly what the asbestos situation is. She said this problem is not going away. Professor Julian Peto, an English professor, predicted that Australia would not peak in 2020 but rather the peak might not be until 2050.

Serious money needs to be thrown at this issue. They already have kits for removal of small areas of asbestos. Every one of us is guilty—I have been guilty in the past—of breaking up asbestos, throwing it in the trailer and taking it to the tip. In Vicki’s own words, a bit of money chucked their way to look after the families affected would not go astray. I say to the member for Reid and members of the government: if you would like to look closely at what this organisation is doing, it is on their website. I pay tribute not only to Vicki Hamilton but also to Brian Clegg, Dorothy Roberts, my old friend and political foe John Parker, secretary of the union down there, and members Marie Smith and Ann Clegg.

I commend this motion to the House and acknowledge that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

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