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

It's an honour for me to speak on this bill. It gives me an opportunity that we don't often get—to speak about the parliament's background in a number of areas regarding respiratory illnesses. In this case, it's silicosis. The major one for me has probably been asbestosis, which we've been considering for a long time.

Why are these bills important? New innovation, new technology, silicosis. For a long time, we've known about the effects of prolonged exposure to dust. In every carpenter's room or where there was indoor carpentry work going on, there were always dust filters pulling out the sawdust all the time. It wasn't in the early days, but, as we got into the sixties and seventies, we realised there was a problem with the dust, because the dust of the wood would literally sit on the chests of those that were working in that industry and kill them. These are not inflammatory diseases, to my knowledge. These are diseases actually causing a cancerous reaction to prolonged exposure to silica, asbestos or other forms of invasive breathing in the lungs.

The government has rightly—and I commend them for that—introduced a National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry. This bill makes that work right across the country. It's good to be early on this, not waiting for each state to put together their particular legislation and then have to try and mould together all that they've already done. As we heard from the member for Moreton, in Queensland they already have this registration. I enjoy that it's with the agreement of each state; there's no demand. To report, you must have the consent of the employee or worker because consent is important in all areas. I won't go into the other areas where consent needs to be sought and given.

These respiratory diseases were noticed quite quickly. It's mostly kitchen or bathroom renovations or new bathrooms or kitchens that have the silica stone, which is so popular in all new homes right across Australia. No-one thought that we might have an asbestosis problem or silicosis problem. I had a friend who had retired, and he was using his lathe in the shed all the time, and had dust from the lathe in the shed. They realised that he was quite ill, and it was a fact that he was breathing in the sawdust himself. Once he had a big rest from his lathe and the woodworking in the shed, his body was able to repair itself quite quickly, and he's quite well. But, with silicosis and asbestosis, it's just not that easy. It embeds and it can spark a cancerous growth within the lungs.

This is being addressed across the nation by the health industry. It is important to us as a parliament to protect those people who are exposed to such detrimental air in workplaces. In just about every workplace that I know of now, all of those bases are now covered. We are no longer cowboys without a mask. We're having to clean air in these factories. It's very important how they go about their work. The occupational health and safety standards have gone through the roof in the silica area.

Why is the bill important? It's a good guide to how we should go about health care right across Australia. Importantly for the nation, while the state agencies are responsible for the delivery of the health service, the direction given by government and the opportunity to work together as a nation on a particular problem, such as silicosis, is given to us here. Here we are in the parliament actually doing something exactly about that situation. I commend the bill to the House, and I look forward to its passing.

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