Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we have in the parliament the family of Gerry Bradley, one of the two young Irishman crushed by falling concrete panels on a building site in East Perth in November. Gerry had no experience in construction. He obtained his white card online—a process that I believe is flawed and needs urgent revision. Gerry's partner, Shelley, his father, Gerald, and his uncle, Eamon, are asking us to make sure that the tragic deaths of these life-loving young men are not in vain. They are concerned by the attitude of WorkSafe WA, who have been quite dismissive of the family's requests for information and say that it may take up to three years to complete their report. This is unacceptable.

The family is concerned to learn that the Fair Work Building Commission visited the site three times, preoccupied with ensuring that unions were not making unauthorised visits to check safety. They are concerned that on the site, in the months before the deaths, union officials had repeatedly raised safety concerns, listing the lack of supervision and spotting and the failure to observe exclusion zones—all relevant here. The grief of these lovely people is still raw and they need their loss to be taken more seriously by the company, by WorkSafe and by FWBC. We must learn from this tragedy and do better.