Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Fifty years ago, at 10 minutes to 12 on 15 October 1970, workers on the West Gate Bridge heard a thunderous crack, and anyone living within 20 kilometres heard the same roar. Steel buckled, bolts snapped and the 112-metre span of the bridge, weighing 2,000 tonnes, plummeted to the ground below. It took only a few seconds, but in those terrifying moments 35 workers lost their lives and another 18 were injured. Twenty-eight women lost their husbands, 88 children lost their fathers, and dozens of people were left with a lifetime of trauma.

Last week we marked 50 years since the collapse, which remains the worst construction industry disaster in Australia's history. Unions had repeatedly expressed concerns about the safety of the project, and I remind all those here: when unions, particularly those in dangerous sectors, are attacked, safety is attacked. Just two months earlier, a bridge designed by the same company had collapsed during its construction in Wales, killing four workers and injuring five more. When West Gate workers had been assured that the bridge was safe, they went back to work.

While we haven't had a worse industrial disaster since that dark day, we can't be complacent. Only last week a 23-year-old construction worker, Jonnie Hartshorn, died when a roof collapsed at a site at Curtin University. Two others were injured. Just like at West Gate, workers had expressed safety concerns in the weeks leading up to that tragedy. Last year, 183 Australians died in workplace accidents. That's the first time it's gone up since 2007. The Boland review has been with the government now for two years. (Time expired)