Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike many historical forms of silicosis, screening programs in Australia have meant that the disease has been detectable in early stages in many workers. If silicosis is found at an early stage, the trial procedure known as a whole lung lavage is showing a significant radiological improvement in people presenting in the early stages of the disease. Unfortunately, this has been a very small, recent trial involving only six male patients and we cannot yet know of the long-term outcomes and overall effectiveness of this procedure. What we do know though is that early detection of such diseases is paramount to improving outcomes for patients.

Allowing for a registry will mean that there is a greater opportunity to monitor the number of Australians being impacted by silicosis. Most importantly, it will provide a sound foundation for further research to be conducted into silicosis to help with prevention, management of symptoms and hopefully one day a cure. Mandatory reporting to a national body will allow for early detection, which is crucial to the outcome of the patient, but it also protects other workers as it may flag a potentially dangerous workplace so that it doesn't continue to cause harm to more workers. By enabling research, the registry could also show that protections considered adequate by business against inhaling RCS may not be sufficient in practice to prevent breathing in the very fine particles which cause such damage.

I understand that there have been concerns raised by physicians about the extra work of having to report to the registry, but I believe the bill provides a balanced reporting obligation and this small inconvenience would lead to greater beneficial outcomes for Australians exposed to RCS, their families and their workplaces and their communities as a whole.

In June this year, I attended a lunch in my community. It was for the Asbestos Victims Memorial Day service. A wonderful woman, Catherine Wegener, lost her husband to asbestosis, and across the Fleurieu she has created a support network. What was so very sad about the day is that it was a room largely full of women, widows, who do not have their husbands by their sides simply because of a disease that they caught when they were in the workplace. I heard the stories of many widows whose husbands had suffered. This is 20 years after banning the sale, manufacture and importation of asbestos. Yet, the stories of the women who nursed their husbands through what is an incredibly awful death were horrendous.

That's why I believe it is so important for us to be at the forefront of this. We need to raise awareness of this new emerging trend in silicosis, which is very much affecting young tradies. We need to enable collection of data on the disease and on those impacted, and we need to facilitate research to fight this and make sure we do this effectively. I do not want to see history repeating itself. Those women who are in their 60s and 70s, who were alone at that lunch, had been, I'm sure, hoping they would get to enjoy a retirement with their husband—that they would perhaps be one of those lucky couples, those grey nomads hitching the caravan to the back of the car and travelling around Australia together and enjoying those retirement years. But that was taken away from them. It was taken away from their husbands and it was taken away from these women. We cannot repeat that. I commend this bill and I commend the government for their actions on this registry.

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