Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australian workers in every occupation, everywhere, are entitled to safe working conditions. They have a right to go to work and to return home safely to their families. The workplace should not be a hazardous place where our bodies or minds are attacked overtly or insidiously. Those attacks are rarely deliberate, though they have sometimes happened. Usually, they occur because somebody, somewhere, is unaware or careless of the fact that workers are human beings entitled to respect. Although they help produce profits of all kinds, they are not things to be used to make profits or assist somebody else's personal ambitions. Their contributions should be respected and their health and safety actively maintained for their own sake, for families' sake and for all our sakes if we are to be decent human beings in a decent society.

The Albanese Labor government is committed to protecting Australian workers from the harm associated with silicosis and silica related diseases. Silica is a complex material, and we can't live without it, but some silica dust is dangerous—even deadly. It's an insidious attack on human bodies. We now know that silica laden dust produced when cutting engineered and natural stone for use in homes has been maiming and killing workers young and old. Almost one in four engineered-stone workers have contracted silicosis. I'll say it again: almost one in four engineered-stone workers have contracted silicosis. It's a terrible figure, and it can't be allowed to continue.

When the Albanese Labor government came into office in 2022, we encountered the growing concerns of anxious workers and frustrated scientists that something was seriously wrong. In July 2022, Dr Renee Carey from the Curtin University School of Population Health in my home state of Western Australia reported on the results of a study commissioned by the ACTU. More than half a million Australian workers were being exposed to silica dust across various industries. Her colleague John Curtin Distinguished Professor Lin Fritschi told us that banning engineered stone would save lives.

Through the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023, we added silicosis to the remit of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, and on 1 July 2024, in one of those moments that make me proud to be an Australian and especially proud to be a member of the Australian Labor Party, the Albanese Labor government joined with the states and territories to implement a world-first prohibition on the use, manufacture, supply, processing and installation of engineered-stone benchtops, panels and slabs in Australia—a world first.

Why was Australia the first nation to act so decisively? It is in large part because of the collective wisdom and efforts of organised unions. The union movement, so relentlessly attacked by those opposite, has saved countless lives in the fight for safe working conditions. We don't always know straightaway that something is wrong. It took decades to understand the dangers of asbestos and to heed the warnings of voices that so often sounded like fringe agitators. In fact, when I was in high school, I saw the first inkling that something was wrong and beginning to take effect, but slowly—too slowly. It was proposed back in 1988 that there should be a class trip to the Pilbara which would include visiting the asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Some parents at the meeting were concerned, but they were reassured. So a busload of us camped in the deserted town of Wittenoom, where so many lives have been destroyed. It's now closed to all—unsafe for humans.

Unions and labour lawyers are still fighting for justice and fair compensation for the victims of asbestos related diseases. They have done this quite literally with tears in their eyes. I know them, and I commend and thank them. I also thank the Australian Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Transport Workers Union, the United Workers Union, state union bodies and the ACTU. I have previously told members opposite in this place that they need to engage with unions in a proactive and positive way. The coalition spends a lot of its energy trying to demonise unions. They need to remember that, in every workplace, there can be bad actors. Their own party has not been short of them, yet we maintain the view that each of our political parties, just as each of our unions, can rise above the malfeasance of a few. It would be better for the coalition to put aside its anti-union reflex and instead learn directly—as we do—from those who represent working Australians at the coalface of each industry.

Unions have been at the forefront of efforts to come to grips with this dangerous practice and to stop the needless deaths. It was the labour unions in Chile that helped identify silicosis in miners as early as 1930. That's almost a hundred years ago. South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers supported legal cases in that country and in the UK against companies mining asbestos more than 10 years ago. It was Unite—the UK's and Ireland's largest union—that created an online register for silicosis sufferers in 2019. In Western Australia, I witnessed firsthand the campaign led and run by Mick Buchan and the west WA branch of the CFMEU for the banning of engineered stone. They worked on this with enormous effort and diligence for more than a decade. Unions are solid repositories of practical experience that we should respect. They listen, they learn, they study and they address real-world problems. It is foolish in the extreme for a political party to eschew that assistance and wisdom. Ignoring the evidence they uncover cannot lead to useful policy.

I thank all the determined researchers, especially those from the University of Adelaide, where there has been almost a century of research into silicosis. The research continues. Lung disease is likely to be only the most obvious effect. At Monash University in September last year, researchers reported a finding that those workers exposed to silica dust show a higher incidence of blood markers that are the hallmark of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.

The problems of engineered stone and silicosis date back to ancient Egypt, but the popularity of engineered stone everywhere has now created an international crisis for many thousands of workers. We have learnt from our terrible experience with asbestosis, but the plaintiffs now taking action against companies in relation to engineered-stone products are facing the same difficulties in seeking compensation. It can often be a race against time.

Rather than seeing compensation cases and grieving families, we want to keep the people they love alive. On New Year's Day this year, we strengthened our prohibition with a further prohibition on the importation of engineered stone. That sends a message not just to companies here but to the world. The amendments in this bill, the Customs Amendment (Expedited Seizure and Disposal of Engineered Stone) Bill 2024, will amend the Customs Act 1901 so we can support the effective operation of the import prohibition by enhancing existing seizure and disposal powers under the Customs Act.

Engineered-stone products are bulky. They pose significant challenges in all sorts of ways. We can't afford to have them occupying large amounts of space. Under the Customs Act, items seized are generally required to be kept for 30 days prior to disposal. We need a mechanism for the Australian Border Force to deal with seized engineered stone efficiently by allowing for its immediate destruction. This is what we do with other prohibited imports like dangerous and perishable goods and illicit drugs. This bill will allow the Comptroller-General of Customs to decide on the best way to deal with seized stone products, including choosing immediate destruction. Australian Border Force will also be supported by funding of $32.1 million over the next two years, provided in the 2024-25 budget. We understand that an importer might want to challenge this expedited destruction, so we are allowing for the right to recover the market value of the goods if they can establish that the circumstances required to trigger the destruction did not exist.

The bill not only provides a way for customs to do their important work efficiently but also adds another layer of deterrence. It is worth considering that, while we have legislated here at home, the scourge of silicosis caused by engineered stone continues in many countries. Immediate destruction at point of entry will help send a message to importers and manufacturers overseas that Australia is serious about protecting workers. It will be another way in which we help to drive down demand and, in so doing, reduce harm.

When I spoke on the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill in 2023, I mentioned the incidence of silicosis in workplaces—in goldmines in Brazil; in Budhpura in India, which is known as the city of widows; and among Latino sandstone workers in Los Angeles. It is estimated that about 230 million workers globally are exposed to silica dust in their workplaces. Study after study tolls the bells of the dangers, but the websites of engineered-stone companies portray their products as safe and sustainable.

The other positive effect of our laws, of course, is that other jurisdictions will follow our lead. In August last year, European researchers urged the UK and the EU to follow Australia's lead and ban engineered stone. UK doctors working in the field added their voices to the call. In December, the New Zealand Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety opened consultations on the question of a ban. The manufacture and export and use of asbestos went through a similar process, with most jurisdictions coming to the same conclusion eventually. In the holdout countries, such as Russia, the use of asbestos carries with it ongoing health consequences.

The Albanese Labor government does not believe in ignoring problems, hiding from them, or running away from them. This is not what the Australian people pay the government to do. They pay them to listen to them—all of them—identify the problems, do the necessary consultation and research, and get to work to fix them. This is what we do, whatever the problems are—an economy with more than six per cent inflation, inactivity on housing construction, a neglected and ailing healthcare system, inadequate child care, or workers' safety care. Dealing with this challenge in relation to engineered-stone products is congruent with the government's attitude to both the health of Australians and the rights of Australian workers. I commend the bill to the House.

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