Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I proudly rise in support of the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023. It is a big step in providing support for those affected by the terrible scourge of silicosis and related diseases. The bill is about protecting our workers around the nation. I've had the privilege of meeting with workers impacted by this dreadful disease and have seen the effects firsthand. So I know, and the House should know, just how important this is. The rates of silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases are unacceptably high.

Some of us will have seen the ABC report this year showing that, despite the increased awareness, there are still many Australian workers missing out on diagnosis in Australia. The bill is a step in consolidating resources and making sure that the disease will be harder to miss, allowing more Australians to get the care they need. We should all also know that dust-borne diseases are entirely preventable illnesses. Bad workplace practices and lack of oversight within the industry mean that workers are often put in danger. Too many young Australians are diagnosed with this preventable illness and all too often suffer an entirely preventable death.

Dust-borne diseases impact workers from a wide range of industries, including construction, manufacturing, tunnelling, mining and quarrying. Sadly, we know the numbers will rise, given workers' exposure to very high levels of crystalline silica in the engineered stone industry since the early 2000s. Medical experts have warned that the time it takes from exposure to the time of diagnosis means the number of cases will more likely increase over the next few years.

The rapid re-emergence of accelerated silicosis has raised concerns about the adequacy of, and compliance with, existing workplace safety arrangements in Australia. Substantial work has already been undertaken to address silicosis by Safe Work Australia. Jurisdictions have also taken immediate steps to address the increases in silicosis cases, including through legislative changes, the development of codes of practice, education, awareness campaigns and compliance audits and the establishment of collaborative mechanisms such as the heads of workplace safety authorities working group on silicosis. This is all good work, but there is a need to maintain this momentum and ensure the safety of workers. The working group has presented a comprehensive set of recommendations, and the implementation will require further cohesive sets of actions by all stakeholders, including governments.

With all that said, let's go back to basics on what we're talking about. Silicosis is a lung disease mainly caused by inhaling silica, a mineral commonly found in certain types of rock and soil. Silica dust is created when cutting, drilling, grinding or polishing certain types of stone, rock, sand and clay. Over time inhaling silica dust causes inflammation which leads to scarring of the lung tissue, which causes a stiffening of the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. Silica dust particles are a hundred times smaller than a grain of sand—so small that you can't see them with the naked eye. When inhaled these particles become trapped and will cause irritation throughout the lungs—causing an irritation that your immune system will try to attack. The attack will be unsuccessful and cause the immune system cells to die, which then causes inflammation and scar tissue on the lungs. The development of scar tissue inhibits a person's ability to breathe and they show signs of silicosis and, in very severe cases, autoimmune disease as well.

It's pretty clear why we need to be proactive in responding to this disease: because of the devastating and debilitating effects this has on workers. A study from Curtin University shows that between 80,000 and 100,000 people may be affected by silicosis. The Cancer Council estimates roughly 600,000 workers have the potential for exposure each year across a wide range of industries, whether it be cutting marble for those fancy benchtops or from the dust of cut rocks in the mines. Silicosis is not often diagnosed until it's in its advanced stages. Approximately 350 Australians contract silicosis a year. Of that, around 230 people are diagnosed with the advanced prognosis. That ABC report I mentioned earlier noted that a surveillance program in New South Wales missed some 200 workers.

One of the reasons I stand to speak on this bill today is the advocacy of the ACTU and the conversations we have had with those affected by silicosis. In November last year, I met with an ACTU delegation and heard directly from workers impacted by and living with silicosis on how it affects their lives. One story in particular stood out to me. After returning from maternity leave, Joanna was asked to undergo a fit-for-work test. That test changed her life, and not in a good way. This is a 34-year-old mother of two girls, and she was diagnosed with silicosis. When Joanna sat with me in our office, she explained that the unknown was the terrifying part. There is no cure. There are no clear steps that show how the illness will progress. She could be fine for the rest of her life and then have a rapid decline at any given point. She said: 'At the moment, I'm feeling healthy, but I do not know if that'll be the case in one year, let alone five years or 10 years. As a mum of two daughters, that terrifies me.'

She contracted silicosis while working at a quarry in Montrose in Victoria. It's a quarry I've been to myself. She predominantly worked in the administration of that quarry. I think what she said was poignant: 'No matter where you were in the plant, you would be exposed to dust. It'd be all over your clothes and all over your skin.' There's no escaping it—there was no protection for the workers, who were there doing an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. She talked about how there was no information about the danger from her employer. Despite it being a multinational company, there was no education and no warning about the risk. Understandably, she talked about her anger when she said: 'I fear this will affect my life and my family's life. I'm angry, and I should never have been exposed to this disease.'

After this meeting, I wrote to the minister for workplace relations, imploring him that more needs to be done. I'm very proud that the Albanese Labor government has been responsive and made great strides on this important issue. We've always been the party that fights for and protects workers, and this government, the Albanese government, is no different. Whether it's in our commitment to education on occupational respiratory diseases or providing better resources for essential record keeping, this is what this very bill will do.

Importantly, we are putting our money where our mouth is. The government has committed an extra almost $10 million to tackle silicosis in the recent budget. This additional investment, on top of the $3.9 million already invested at the beginning of the year, will go a long way to combatting this deadly dust. Together with the education campaigns and working with states and territories on more decisive bans, we are fixing the legislative and educational holes that have left workers to fall through cracks. Standing up for workplace rights is what brought me here, and I'll always stand up for the rights of workers for as long as I'm lucky enough to serve in this place.

Let's have a look at some of the details of this. The National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill delivers on the recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish a National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry. This national registry will provide for better record keeping on a national scale, and it gives experts and policymakers an opportunity to see the trends of occupations that have caused or exacerbated this disease. It will also give us a firm understanding of the true scale of the disease in Australia and help pave the way for us to equip our healthcare system to provide the support that is needed. Based on the recommendations from the task force, at the start, silicosis will be the only prescribed occupational disease for the purpose of the register. But this bill keeps a door open to allow the minister, in consultation with chief health officers, to be able to prescribe more diseases as they raise their ugly heads.

In addition to ensuring information is available to doctors treating the people affected, the bill will also enable the disclosure of notifications about an individual made to the national registry, including to prescribed Commonwealth, state or territory authorities, their health agencies and their work and health safety agencies as well. So the measures will allow state and territory health and work safety agencies to have more awareness of the occupations with the most risk for occupational disease and the prevalence of these diseases in our communities.

The result of this will be reducing the risk to workers and ensuring workers and workplaces are adequately supported in all future policymaking decisions. I'm proud to be part of a government that is committed to the safety of workers right across this nation. We will always stand up for working Australians and be proactive in bringing forward legislation that creates the best outcomes for workers.

I have here the Deadly Dust magazine, which is a very interesting read. It goes through a whole range of stuff, including a joint statement that was done with unions and businesses, talking about how we go forward, how we move to the next stage, what the things are that we need to do. I think we need to continue working on this and ensure that we do everything within our power to limit the opportunities for people to be impacted, having a more regulatory approach that removes all doubt and provides duty holders with clarity about the risk control measures necessary for high-risk silica processes.

These are the sorts of things, with these national registers, that are important. They're important for making sure that people like the group that came and sat with me in my office and talked about the issues they're facing, because of silicosis, get the support and help they need. It's also important that we learn from this and make sure that we don't have it happen again. No-one deserves to be 34, 54, 64 or 24—whatever age—and put in a workplace that's unsafe and that brings a situation where you go home one day and are never the same person again. We must stop that. We must make sure that we do everything in our power.

What we've seen is the government working with businesses and the unions, to get together and say, 'This is a problem we have and it's about us getting together, in a tripartite response, to address this problem and help people like Joanna.' She deserves our full support. She deserves us working together, as hard as we can, to make sure that we deliver for her future and for everyone else's.

I thank the ACTU, particularly Liam O'Brien who raised this with me. I've had many conversations with Liam about it. He knows how keen I am to see this done. It's an important thing we need to do, and we need to work together. We need to look at other diseases, such as mesothelioma, and how we can fast-track drugs like Keytruda that has benefits for this. I've seen that through one of my constituents, Lou Williams, who sadly passed away. She got access to this medication and it made her life so much better for another year. She was healthier, fitter and able to move around.

That's something we should always remember when we come in here: our job is to make this country better than what it was when we first got here. By doing that, working with unions, working with businesses and working together, we can keep building on this great nation and make workplaces safer for all Australians. I commend this bill to the House.

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