Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence, I rise today to remember an Australian tragedy and to remember those who were lost. On this day 48 years ago, Australians watched in horror as the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. It's not a particular anniversary this year, just like it's the 16th anniversary this year since the terrible Bali bombings that were commemorated just a few days ago. But, whether it's the 48th or the 16th or the 35th or the 55th, each time this date and this period is marked it's a chilling reminder and a terrible time of sadness for all of those who are touched personally by these tragic incidents.

On that day, Australians watched in horror as the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. Most of us who sit in this chamber would have been small children. Some would not have been born. But Australians around the country on that day watched in horror and 35 men needlessly lost their lives. Just before midday, on what should have been just another ordinary working day, 2,000 tonnes of steel and concrete crashed to the ground and the waters below. Thirty-five working men, many of them migrants who had come to Australia seeking a better life, were killed and lost. Kids lost their dads, wives lost their husbands, parents lost their sons and family members lost their brothers, and many, many more were seriously injured. Miraculously, 18 men escaped the carnage and, on that day, these survivors would be the first responders, doing what they could do to save their mates. It was a day that should never be forgotten, and it's not been forgotten today. I appreciate the Leader of the Opposition writing to me about this anniversary and suggesting us doing this here today together.

Mostly, when these things happen we call them accidents—a chance of fate—but that wasn't the case on this day. The collapse of the West Gate Bridge was not an accident; nor was it a chance of fate. As the royal commission found, the collapse was as a result of man-made errors—error upon error, mistakes compounded by efforts to rectify them, and all occurring within a confrontational culture marked by distrust, division and demarcation. Thankfully, much has changed since the 1970s and, of course, our workplaces are much safer today than they were almost half a century ago. Tougher laws have been introduced and workers have been given more of a say, as they should, about safety on the job. Safety is now something everyone is responsible for right across the organisation. We achieve so much more in our workplaces and, indeed, in a country where we work together and we look out for each other, whatever our role is within an organisation. As the report of the Royal Commission into the Failure of West Gate Bridge said:

It is widely accepted that the essential requirements for good labour relations are mutual trust, confidence and respect as between management, trade unions and men. Once this relationship is established, all concerned will work as a team and first-class production can be achieved. Without it, little if any progress can be made.

As a lesson for today, the mistakes that are made are not supposed to bind us forever; they're supposed to guide us into our future. On this 48th anniversary, we remember the lessons of those times and we remember the 35 men who needlessly perished and their families, who have lived with this every day from then till now and will into the future. Today, tens of thousands of vehicles will pass across the West Gate Bridge. Its flags will be lowered in an act of remembrance. Families, friends and former workmates will gather at the site of the collapse, as they do every year, to remember the loved ones they have lost. It's only appropriate for us here today to pause here in the nation's parliament to remember the lessons of that day so that they might shine a path forward for all of us. May the 35 souls lost at the West Gate Bridge rest in peace and may God bless their families.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Prime Minister for his words and for agreeing to our request for this motion. It was 48 years ago, on a windy Melbourne morning at 11.50 am, 50 metres above the Yarra, 128 metres of concrete and steel in span 10 to 11 of the West Gate Bridge suddenly began to shudder. Workers later told of an eerie ringing sound as giant steel bolts turned blue under the strain and shot from their sockets with a sound like light bulbs popping. Then, in a flash, 2,000 tonnes of concrete and steel fell onto the muddy ground below and onto the eight wooden site huts, where the workforce's first lunch break had just begun. Thirty-five men died; 18 were injured. Families were fractured by tragedy, others spared by sheer luck alone, racked by that inexplicable human phenomena of survivor guilt.

Today we remember riggers and fitters, ironworkers, boilermakers, engineers, fathers, brothers and sons. Many of them were actually migrants who were seeking a fresh start in a new nation, who went out the front door that day from commission flats in Collingwood and humble houses in Altona and never came home. Victor Gerada was a steel rigger born in Malta. On 14 October, the day before the collapse, he thought he felt a shudder run through the bridge. He told his wife Doris that night when he got home from work, explaining he didn't want to tell his workmates because he didn't want them thinking the less of him. That morning, Victor woke Doris before he left for work to reassure her it must have been the wind. Victor and Doris's home was close enough to the bridge for Doris to run straight there when she heard the sirens. She arrived just as her husband's body was being loaded into the ambulance.

Jack Grist was the site foreman and Fred Upsdell was a storeman. They had been mates for over 20 years. They both lived in Altona and, as usual, Jack gave Fred a lift to work that day. They had their lunch in the hut at the same time. When the mess of the rubble and the tangle of the scaffolding was cleared, their bodies were found next to one another. Later, the two old friends would be buried alongside each other. The humble plaque on the memorial beneath the bridge at Hyde Street bears 35 names. It lists their trade or craft, each carries its own story and so too do the survivors, some of whom I've had the privilege to meet. They are men like Bob Setka, a rigger, who somehow miraculously rode the bridge down, a 50 metre fall. He'd stepped out from the interior of the span for a cigarette moments before. That decision saved his life.

It should also be noted that a generation of union organisers rose out of that tragedy: men who'd worked on this job, galvanised by it. I've had the privilege of meeting some of these survivors and some of those who were on the job that day: Tom Watson, John Cummins, Pat Preston and Danny Gardiner. There were more. They learned very difficult lessons that day and they made it their mission to advance the cause, not just for better industrial relations but to champion stronger workplace health and safety across the state and the nation.

Most of us who use the bridge day by day rarely stop to reflect on Australia's worst industrial disaster. But today in the House of the Australian people we honour the memory of all those who have died. We acknowledge and remember the trauma and the guilt inflicted on families and loved ones and on survivors—many of whom lived with the nightmares for years. But in doing so we remind ourselves that we sit in the relative comfort and security of this place—that workplace deaths and injuries are not just a tragedy confined to the history books and black-and-white photos. It's been about three weeks since the parliament last met, but, in the three weeks since parliament last met, around 10 Australians have died at work, whether that be falling from heights or crushed by heavy machinery or falling material. Thousands more right now live and will die from industrial diseases incurred at work. Until every Australian workplace is safe and until every Australian has the right to come home to the people they love, then there is more for all of us to do.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That further statements in relation to the 48th anniversary of the Westgate Bridge collapse be permitted in the Federation Chamber.

Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.