Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are more than 3,000 construction businesses and more than 560 manufacturing businesses in my electorate of Macquarie, as well as a number of sandstone quarries, and so it's for the thousands of construction, manufacturing and quarry workers in and around my electorate that I speak in support of the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill today.

It's now well documented how great the risk of engineered-stone manufacturing is and the horrifying impact that it can have on people exposed to its dust. We've already seen people die from silicosis in this country, people who were otherwise young and healthy. Rates of silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases are unacceptably high here. These are entirely preventable illnesses and, all too often, entirely preventable deaths. I want every family in Macquarie to know that when they wave goodbye to a loved one as they go off to work in the morning, no matter what the worksite is or whether it's their mum, dad, son, daughter or partner, they're going to see them come home and they're not going to be exposed to deadly silica dust.

It's worth comparing the actions that were taken by governments when asbestos was first identified to what we're doing today in these bills. The safety risks of asbestos were first identified in 1898, but it wasn't until the 1970s that meaningful action began. Now, as a parliament, we are not making that same mistake again. We are looking at a range of things that can be done.

First, I want to make clear exactly what silicosis is. It is preventable, but it typically has scarring on the lungs called 'pulmonary fibrosis'. Over time, breathing in those tiny silica dust particles triggers an inflammatory response that leads to small nodules growing on the lungs. They can cluster together, causing the lungs to be stiffer and reducing the transfer of oxygen into the blood. In the early stages of the disease, people can have a cough and can be breathless or tired, but they're well, generally. The more the disease spreads in the lungs, the harder it will be for someone to breathe. There is no cure. A lung transplant may be the only option, although much work is being done on new treatments.

The incidence of silicosis has really come to light in recent years. When we talk about this dust getting into people's lungs, a lot of it has come from the use of dry cutting in the engineered-stone benchtop industry, where those big slabs of stone are cut to size using handheld power saws and grinders to form those holes for the sink, the taps or the stovetop.

That generates the crystalline silica dust which can be released into the air and inhaled. We know that using water in this process can suppress the generation of dust significantly but, until recently, dry processing was by and large the way the industry operated. The Victorian government has done some good analysis, and they have found that almost 70 per cent of workers with silicosis in Victoria indicated they spent more than half their time at work in an environment where dry processing was occurring.

Queensland was the first state to ban dry-cutting in 2018 and Victoria followed in 2019, with New South Wales in 2020, so there has been progress made to protect workers. Around the time the Victorian government brought in its ban it launched enforcement blitz, and WorkSafe Victoria implemented a free screening program for the estimated 1,400 workers in the stone bench industry across the across the state. The findings are interesting. Some 18 per cent of the initial 324 workers who completed the assessments were diagnosed with silicosis. There were similar results in Queensland where, as of February 2021, the government had screened about a thousand stone masons exposed to crystalline silica dust from artificial stone. Some 21 per cent were diagnosed with silicosis, including 32 with the most severe form, called progressive massive fibrosis. These are the sorts of numbers that show the extent of the problem.

It's worth noting now that I am one of many people who, in organising a new kitchen a decade ago, opted for this product in my kitchen. There are lots of other options to use when it comes to the material of choice for a kitchen benchtop. In Australia, around 45 per cent of the benchtop market is artificial stone—compare that to the United States, where it is only 14 per cent. That is one of the reasons the numbers we are seeing are really quite high. It is worthwhile saying to people—and I would take this advice now had my house burned down this year and not 10 years ago, and were I building a new kitchen—that there are many alternatives that contain little or no silica, like wood, laminate, steel or marble.

That brings us to where we are as a parliament and the sorts of things we can do to be tackling this very insidious issue. The Albanese government is committed to tackling occupational respiratory diseases and we are bringing in a suite of reforms to ensure Australia's prevention and treatment measures are world-class, protecting workers from unacceptable health risks. The package includes the National Silicosis Prevention Strategy and the national action plan, done in collaboration with health professionals, unions and industry. We're also investing in educational campaigns for employers, workers and health professionals to improve not only that prevention, which is so important, but also the detection and treatment. We are also exploring measures to limit the use of engineered stone, including an import ban—that's where individual consumers have the individual choice and can make a difference. We're also working with states and territories to ensure we have a coordinated approach to keep workers safe. This particular bill delivers on the recommendations of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish a National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry. It follows the increase that we have seen, and will capture information relating to respiratory diseases that are believed to have been occupationally caused or exacerbated. It will support the use of the information to understand the true scale of all these diseases in Australia and take action to reduce further exposures in the workplace.

The bill will require medical specialists in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine, as well as occupational and environmental medicine, who diagnose certain occupational respiratory diseases to notify the diagnosis, the patient and the exposure details to the national registry via an online portal. These physicians may also notify other occupational respiratory diseases, where that individual provides consent—and you're going to hear the word 'consent' throughout this debate because there is a recognition that there needs to be protection of individuals' privacy, and that is embedded in the design of this register. Consistent with the recommendation of the task force, initially only silicosis will be a prescribed occupational respiratory disease. The Minister for Health and Aged Care will be able to add other diseases to the list of prescribed diseases, following consultation with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer and each state or territory. The bill recognises the potential burden that notification will have on physicians. We are very mindful that we are asking medical practitioners to do more things, so this limits the mandatory elements that must be notified to a 'minimum notification'. A minimum notification will include sufficient information to identify an individual with a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease, the respiratory disease that has been diagnosed and details of the likely exposure that resulted in the disease, including the last and main exposures.

Further additional information can also be supplied where the individual has provided consent, and there are many people that I crossed paths with who want these details to be known because they know that information may provide additional insights into detection, prevention or treatment. That additional information may include relevant medical test results and demographic and lifestyle information, such as their smoking history and employment status. They may want to add details of each job where the individual believes that they had an exposure to a respiratory disease-causing agent. A really good example demonstrates that it isn't only those who are holding the saws and cutting the stone who are affected. We've had a really disturbing case study of a woman who worked in the office of a quarry where she ended up covered in dust every day without having any idea of what the effects of that exposure year after year might be. Being able to capture those details and some of the history of that person might provide really important insights, but each individual will determine what additional details they want captured.

In addition to ensuring notified information is available to the physicians treating that individual, the bill will enable the disclosure of notifications about that person that are made to the national registry, including to prescribed Commonwealth state or territory authorities and to state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies. The disclosure to state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies will increase awareness of the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases in that state or territory and will enable actions to be taken to reduce further exposure of workers to those diseases.

This bill recognises that several jurisdictions have registry functions currently in operation and doesn't exclude or limit the operation of any state or territory laws requiring the reporting or disclosure of information around occupational respiratory diseases. Where notification is already mandatory in state legislation, the bill provides for notification of these diseases to occur through the national registry, should the state allow it. This will remove the potential for a physician in those states to be required to notify twice—that is, once nationally and once again on the state register.

The establishment of the national registry will complement actions across all Australian governments to reduce exposures in the workplace and demonstrates the government's commitment to keeping workers safe. That, ultimately, is our goal here. It is really important for those of us who care about our workers. I don't think there would be a single person in this place who would not want to know that, as someone in their community went to work, their work was not leading to them being exposed to something that could be life-threatening to them down the track, so I look forward to the support of this bill by everybody in this place. It is a commitment by the Albanese government that the rights of workers and the safety of workers be at the forefront of our minds. As someone who has run a small business for 25 years and worked with many, many businesses throughout that period, I know how important our workers are, and I know that employers want to make sure they're providing a safe workplace. I hope that this bill will assist in that process by expanding the information we have.

I commend the bill to the House.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of my friend and colleague the member for Macquarie just before me. This National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023 is a bill of great significance and great importance to the health and wellbeing of Australian workers, and it should come as no surprise that this is a bill introduced by a Labor government. I am very pleased therefore to stand in this House and speak in support of the introduction of a new national occupational respiratory disease registry. This is an important bill, as I said, and I would expect it enjoys the support of every single member in this House.

This bill delivers on the recommendations of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish this National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry in response to what have been some quite shocking increases in silicosis among Australian workers. Silicosis is an irreversible lung disease, but it is entirely preventable. Tragically it is a disease that is caused by worker exposure to silica dust, and health screening conducted by some jurisdictions in recent years has indicated that nearly one in four of the engineered stone workers who have been in the industry since before 2018 have suffered from silicosis and other silica dust related diseases. That is a most unacceptable statistic, nearly one in four engineered stone workers suffering from some type of exposure to silicosis dust. These are, as I said, entirely preventable diseases and conditions. Not only are they entirely preventable but the deaths are often entirely preventable as well.

I come from a region where respiratory diseases have shockingly high rates of prevalence. We know the devastation that is the black lung disease for coalminers, which has reared its ugly head in some parts of Australia again in more recent times, but we have shockingly high rates of respiratory disease across the board. So I am very fortunate to have some of Australia's most preeminent researchers and specialists in respiratory and lung diseases based in Newcastle, and I do want to give a special acknowledgement to Dr Susan Miles, who was recently awarded a terrific acknowledgement from her exceptional work as a clinician but also as someone with excellence in clinical teaching at the Calvary Mater hospital in Newcastle. She was rightly recognised for her outstanding contributions not just to general medicine more broadly at the mater hospital and, as I said, as an outstanding clinical teacher, but also as a very valued member of that team and at the university, and I know she has worked with many other important researchers to understand what is going on with these new cases of silicosis.

I remember the work that Dr Miles and Dr Geoff Tyler did four years ago which alerted us to a number of new cases of silicosis. They were saying that there were 18 new cases each month coming through. Their role has been as researchers and medical advisory members on what used to be the New South Wales Dust Diseases Authority—I think iCare has taken over that role. These people have been at the forefront of alerting us to the increased prevalence and, of course, what we can do in order to prevent these shocking statistics from continuing to escalate. It was a real challenge that we didn't understand the size of the problem, particularly in New South Wales, so heartfelt thanks and a very big shout-out to people like Dr Susan Miles and Geoff Tyler, who've done incredible work to bring this to our attention and to really alert us to the dangers related to the exposure to manufactured stone products. They have also made clear just how we can improve the diagnostic work there and the need for something more than just X-rays if we are to truly detect the extent of this problem.

The bill before us today establishes the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry, which will capture information on respiratory diseases that are believed to have been occupationally caused or, indeed, exasperated. The national registry will also capture associated respiratory disease-causing agents that can lead to the disease, and that's obviously really important information as well. The national registry will capture and share data, where appropriate, on a number of things. I want to step us through what that role looks like. Firstly, it will alert us to the incidence of occupational respiratory diseases and their respiratory disease-causing agents; and the last and main exposures, including the place of business or the industry and occupation and the job task at hand. It will capture the respiratory health data that we need to ensure we have a really accurate picture of what is happening.

This is vital information that will aid in detecting new and emerging threats to workers' respiratory health. It will inform incident trends, which obviously we want to know as far in advance as possible. It will help inform actions to be taken to reduce further worker exposure. It supports, as I mentioned earlier, some really important research that we still need to do in this area into occupational respiratory diseases. I know that doctors and specialists in respiratory disease in my region and the Hunter are very keen to ensure that we have the necessary data to support the critical work they need to do on the frontline of this disease. This information will also assist in targeting and monitoring the effectiveness of the interventions and prevention strategies that we deploy.

The bill will require medical specialists in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine, and occupational and environmental medicine who diagnose certain occupational respiratory diseases to notify of that diagnosis and ensure that the patient and exposure details are also part of the national registry, and they will be doing that via an online portal. This is not, of course, unfamiliar to most of our medical specialists in this field already. They are well equipped to start putting valuable data into this national register. And the bill provides for the minister for health to have the power to make rules prescribing which occupational respiratory diseases require notification, and that is consistent with the recommendations of the National Dust Disease Taskforce. They have asked that initially it be mandatory for only silicosis to be reported. However, this power, which would require further consultation before it is executed—and I want to make that clear—will ensure that the national registry can respond to other threats to workers' respiratory health in the future, and I would think that is important.

It is important that we don't have unfettered powers for ministers. There will be a consultation process there. But we do want our ministers to be able to respond in a speedy manner to new data and information coming through. If there are other threats to workers' respiratory health then we would want to be doing everything we can to get on top of that quick smart. We don't want to see long, drawn-out delays like we saw with asbestos and the awareness raising and necessary legislative responses to those shocking implications for workers who, for too long, continued to work with those dangerous products. We don't want to see a repeat of that. Sadly, in Australia we have a lot of experience in dealing with these respiratory issues for workers, whether it's asbestos related, whether it's coal dust related or, now, on the new frontier of silicosis.

As I said, the bill will allow respiratory and occupational physicians to notify to the national registry information about an individual who has been diagnosed with a non-prescribed occupational respiratory disease where that individual provides consent. The member for Macquarie, who spoke before me, talked about the importance of having consent in all these steps of the process. The bill provides for two categories of information to be notified to the national registry—the minimum notification information as well as the additional notification information. The minimum notification information is that which needs to be supplied to notify the national registry of an occupational respiratory disease. This includes information identifying the individual who has a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease. It requires notification of the respiratory disease itself and details on the exposure, including the last and main points of exposure. These pieces of information are all vitally important in order to get ahead of the spread of this disease and to get better and better at targeting our prevention strategies.

The additional notification information is information that can be supplied where the individual has provided consent. That might include relevant medical test results. It might include demographic and lifestyle information, such as smoking history and employment status, and details of each job where the individual believes they've had an exposure to a respiratory-disease-causing agent. That builds a bigger picture for us all, really. And this bill will enable the disclosure of notifications about an individual made to the national registry, including the respiratory and occupational physicians treating the individual as well as prescribed information to the Commonwealth, states or territories, state and territory health agencies, and work health and safety agencies.

In the short amount of time remaining, I want to say that this bill does not exclude or limit the operation of any existing state or territory laws, and that is important. For those states and territories that already have laws that require the reporting or disclosure of information concerning occupational respiratory diseases, we don't want to see any exclusion or limitation of that. In my home state of New South Wales we have an existing register that requires the mandatory reporting of some occupational respiratory diseases by physicians. This bill will allow for those New South Wales registers to remain intact, but it will make clear that notification of these diseases will occur through the national register so that there is no need for a physician to double-report—they won't have to report to the state register and then the national register; they will only report to the national register. (Time expired)

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Silicosis is the fastest-growing occupational disease. The rates of this and other respiratory diseases in Australia are unacceptably high. These are entirely preventable illnesses and often result in entirely preventable deaths. In a nutshell, when oil, sand and granite are worked on during blasting, crushing, cutting and drilling in construction and associated industries, such as tunnelling, quarrying and mining, silica is released as a very fine dust. One of the most potent sources of silica dust is engineered stone, used mainly for kitchen benchtops. When breathed in, this dust is small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs, causing irreversible lung damage—silicosis. It's incurable, progressive and fatal. About 600,000 workers are exposed to silica dust every year, with about 350 diagnosed with silicosis and 250 with lung cancer.

In June 2021, the Australian Workers Union brought a delegation of silica dust victims here to Parliament House. I met with a 35-year-old mum of two, Joanna, who contracted silicosis after working in an administrative role at a quarry for seven years. She said:

It's the unknown that is so terrifying. With silicosis there is no cure, and you just don't know how it will progress.

Joanna is angry, rightly. She says that she 'should never have been exposed to this disease'. I also met with 53-year-old Kevin, who worked for his company for almost 28 years. He says he wasn't aware that he could get silicosis from what he was doing. He said:

Every day, walking around the site, we thought we were OK and safe, but we weren't. For years we had inappropriate PPE, safety rules and regulations. I was even offered second-hand equipment. This should have never happened.

Sixty-one-year-old Craig worked at a Victorian quarry for 36 years, until he was diagnosed with silicosis in 2019. He said:

My health, family, work, and finances have been devastated. Silicosis has affected my day-to-day life and completely changed my lifestyle. Life now revolves around going from one specialist to another and frequently visiting the hospital. I feel shattered. I will not be able to see my granddaughter grow into an adult, spend time with my wife and loved ones and be there for my family.

Six hundred thousand workers are still being exposed to silica dust every day. A Curtin University study estimates 103,000 workers will now be diagnosed with silicosis as a result of their current exposure to silica dust. The rate of silicosis will skyrocket in coming years if swift, preventative regulatory and compensatory measures are not quickly adopted. Our government is taking this seriously. We are undertaking a suite of reforms to make sure Australia's prevention and treatment measures are world-class. We must protect workers from unacceptable health risks. We are developing a national silicosis prevention strategy and national action plan. We are investing in educational campaigns for employers, workers and health professionals to improve prevention, detection and treatment. We are exploring measures to limit the use of engineered stone, including an import ban, and we're working with states and territories to ensure we have a coordinated approach to keeping workers safe.

The bill we are debating today, the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023, and its related bills deliver on the recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish a national occupational respiratory disease registry. This will mean that medical professionals will need to notify the national registry so that we can better understand and manage occupational respiratory diseases as well as monitor the prevalence of these horrible respiratory diseases, which will enable action to be taken to further reduce workers' exposure to risk.

The national registry will capture information relating to respiratory diseases believed to have been occupationally caused or exacerbated and support the use of information to understand the true scale of these diseases in Australia and take action to further reduce exposure. Consistent with the recommendations of the task force, initially only silicosis will be a prescribed occupational respiratory disease. The Minister for Health and Aged Care will be able to prescribe other diseases following consultation with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer and each state and territory.

The bill recognises the potential burden that notification will have on physicians and limits the mandatory elements that must be notified to a minimum notification. Minimum notification will include sufficient information to identify an individual with a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease; the respiratory disease diagnosed; and details on the likely exposure that resulted in the disease, including the last and main exposures. Further additional information can also be supplied where the individual has provided consent and may include relevant medical test results, demographic and lifestyle information, such as their smoking history and employment status, and details of each job where the individual believes they have had exposure to a respiratory disease-causing agent.

In addition to ensuring notified information is available to the physicians treating the individual, the bill will enable the disclosure of notifications about an individual made to the national registry, including to prescribed Commonwealth state and territory authorities and state and territory health agencies and work, health and safety agencies. The disclosure to state and territory health agencies and work, health and safety agencies will increase the awareness of the prevalence of these occupational respiratory diseases and will enable action to be taken as a result of the information we are gleaning from the development of this registry. Where notification is mandatory in state legislation, the bill provides for notification of these diseases to occur through the national registry, should the state also allow that. This will remove the potential for a physician in those states to notify twice—that is, once nationally and once again on the state register. This is important to assist physicians and not overburden them.

The establishment of the national registry will complement actions across all Australian governments to reduce these exposures in the workplace and demonstrates our government's commitment to keeping workers safe, because we are committed to keeping workers safe, as I'm sure all members of this parliament are. We need to do this, and we need to do more. We need to do this for Joanna. We need to do it for Kevin. We need to do it for Craig. We need to do it for their families, and we need to do it for so many more like them that are suffering and to make sure that we can reduce, limit and cease more people and their families suffering in the future.

I commend the bill to the House.

Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every Australian worker has the right to be safe at work. However, sadly, for many years, thousands of Australian workers were unknowingly exposed to enormous risks in the workplace. Since the first Australian case of silicosis associated with engineered stone was reported in 2015, thousands of Australian workers have sadly been diagnosed with this insidious disease. Many spent years, or even decades, cutting and grinding the stone without any meaningful protection or understanding of the dangers they faced, covering themselves in deadly silica dust. The National Dust Disease Taskforce estimated in 2021 that one in four workers exposed to silica dust from engineered stone before 2018 has been diagnosed with silicosis—one in four workers. Such is the danger of the dust and the inadequacy of protections in so many Australian workplaces.

The impact that silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases have on Australian workers and their families is absolutely devastating. Symptoms may not emerge until years after exposure, and might start as a persistent cough or shortness of breath. However, as the disease progresses, the lungs will continue to stiffen as the silica dust causes inflammation and scarring. Symptoms will progress further to chest pain and fatigue as simple breathing becomes increasingly harder. Sadly, Australians diagnosed with the disease will likely never recover. There is no cure and the effectiveness of treatment is very limited. That's why prevention and early detection must be a priority.

The National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry forms a key part of the government's response to the National Dust Disease Taskforce's final report. The registry will keep records of individuals diagnosed with or being treated for respiratory diseases such as silicosis. The registry will enable the analysis of data relating to the incidence of occupational respiratory disease in Australia, which will, in turn, assist with the development and evaluation of preventive measures. This analysis will enable us to better understand the true scale of these diseases in Australia which are often underreported and underestimated, as this disease can take years to emerge.

While there were 579 Australians diagnosed last year, research from Curtin University estimates that up to 100,000 cases of silicosis may emerge from current silica exposure. Clearly, the scale of this challenge requires very significant action. In order to ensure that comprehensive data is captured, this bill will require medical practitioners to report any diagnosis of a prescribed occupational respiratory disease via an online portal. The minimum notification information will include the patient's identity, the respiratory disease they have been diagnosed with and details about the likely exposure that caused the disease. It is essential that this data is gathered to ensure that we have the best chance of preventing further exposures in the future. More detailed information can be recorded with patient approval, and may include relevant medical test results; demographic and lifestyle information such as their smoking history; employment status; and details of each job where the individual believes they may have had an exposure.

This bill also includes provisions to share data with prescribed Commonwealth, state or territory authorities, as well as state and territory health agencies and work, health and safety agencies. This is essential to ensure that all levels of government are fully equipped to take action to reduce workplace exposure to respiratory-disease causing agents. The bill further recognises that some states already have a registry in place and provides for notification to state registries to occur through the national registry, should the state approve. This would remove a requirement for medical specialists to notify twice of any specific case.

Initially, the only prescribed occupational respiratory disease will be silicosis. However, there are provisions for other diseases to be added by the Minister for Health and Aged Care as necessary. The establishment of this registry will be a critical tool in the fight against silicosis and potentially other diseases in the future. No worker deserves to be put in a situation where they can contract a deadly, life-changing disease by simply showing up at work and doing their job well. We must act to protect these workers, and understanding where, how and why people are contracting silicosis is the first step. The data from the proposed registry will enable us to answer these crucial questions.

It is important to note that this is only the first step. Gathering the data alone will not prevent workers from contracting silicosis. Governments and businesses alike must act on that data. In its final report, the National Dust Disease Taskforce made a series of recommendations beyond the establishment of the registry. These recommendations included the enhancement of work health and safety measures, the development of guidelines to identify people at risk and improve the health screening available to them, improving support for people affected by dust related diseases and their families, and improving the diagnostic capacity of the health sector in relation to silicosis. That is why the government is implementing a range of measures to ensure that Australia's prevention and treatment measures are world class, protecting Australian workers from unacceptable health risks.

A national silicosis prevention strategy and national action plan is being developed in collaboration with unions, industry and health professionals, whilst investment is also being made in educational campaigns for employers, workers and health professionals to improve prevention, detection and treatment. Importantly, the government is also looking at ways we can limit the use of engineered stone, including an import ban.

I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the ACTU, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, for the power of work they have done to bring this issue to the attention of so many in this place. I would also like to particularly thank the very brave union members and workers who have been diagnosed with silicosis and are telling their story in order to raise awareness. With mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, labourers and admin workers all coming forward, it's clear that this disease doesn't discriminate and that workplace safety practices have been totally inadequate for far too long.

In fact, while occupational exposure only contributes 1.8 per cent of the overall burden of disease in Australia, in the specific case of silicosis, it contributes 100 per cent. One hundred per cent of silicosis cases are a direct result of exposure in the workplace. That means workplace exposure is entirely responsible for the pain and suffering of thousands of Australians diagnosed with silicosis as well as the hundreds of thousands of Australians who may be diagnosed in the future.

Whilst there is still a significant amount of work to be done, it is reassuring to see this legislation receiving broad support from across the parliament, the union movement and the medical profession. I want to acknowledge the opposition, who established the National Dust Disease Taskforce and are supporting this legislation. I very much hope this bipartisan approach to protecting the rights of Australian workers is continued into the future.

The National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill is an important step in protecting Australian workers from silicosis and providing a framework for protection from similar diseases in future. It's about ensuring that Australians can return home safely from work every single day without risking their health now or in the future. I commend this bill to the House.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make a few contributions towards the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill and urge the House to support it. I also acknowledge the leadership and the campaign work of the activists in this space and their unions in raising this issue. In quite unfortunate circumstances, people with quite advanced rates of silicosis and other related occupational respiratory diseases took the time to share with us why a bill like this and a reform in this area is needed. Rates of silicosis and other occupational respiratory disease are unacceptably high in Australia. These are preventable diseases and illnesses. Far too often there are entirely preventable deaths if we can just get things right in the workplace and in the health response. We also have the unique opportunity right here, right now, to stop the rise of silicosis and other dust-related diseases from becoming the new asbestos and asbestos-related diseases.

While our government is committed to tackling occupational respiratory disease, I acknowledge from the onset that it is not our job alone—it requires the federal government to work in close collaboration with our state and territory governments as well as with workers, unions and industry. It is essential that the federal government act and take leadership on this matter as it is urgent that we institute measures to lower the exposure of silica dust in Australian workplaces. Colleagues have shared stories of workers coming to tell their tales of how they developed silicosis-related diseases, and those tales are heartbreaking—people who worked with engineered stone, not knowing that cutting and the way in which they cut, and the exposure that they had, would lead to this deadly disease; people who didn't even work with cutting stone—in reception or in accounts—but happened to be in a workplace where dust levels were so high.

Recent modelling by the union movement has shown that, without significant change, 10,000 workers in Australia will be diagnosed with lung cancer related to exposure to silica dust, and 100,000 will be diagnosed with silicosis. Existing safety laws do not provide enough protection for these workers or future workers, and that is why we need to take urgent action. It is good to see that this is bipartisan and that the parliament is working together to ensure that silica dust and silicosis doesn't become the next asbestos. Surveys by the National Dust Disease Taskforce, occupational hygienists and unions show that employers are not doing enough to prevent exposure. More than 70 per cent of occupational hygienists surveyed in 2022 said they were concerned about the overexposure of silica dust in Australian workplaces. Hygienists reported that two barriers to protecting workers were: one, management commitment and; two, lack of financial resource. It's little wonder that we are hearing this—similar reasons were cited during the very slow reform to the asbestos industry over the 1940s and 1980s. I guess that's the point I am trying to make here: we need to act now to prevent silicosis and silica dust becoming the next asbestos and asbestos-related diseases.

Where are we at with asbestos? I am co-chair with the member for Monash of the Parliamentary Group on Asbestos Related Diseases. What we hear time and time again in our forums is the legacy that we have. There is so much asbestos that is out in our built environment. It's estimated that one-third of buildings built between a certain period in Australia have asbestos in them. There are homes, there are government buildings, there are schools and there are hospitals, and it's fine until it's disturbed. With so much asbestos in our built environment, a lot of the shift has gone from the workers who installed it to the DIY people who are doing their own work on their properties. It has in many ways become a huge burden on our health system, as we don't quite know who has been exposed and how they've been exposed, and the education campaign in relation to exposing yourself to asbestos dust is enormous. If you think about one in three homes in Australia built in a certain period as having asbestos, that's a huge education campaign to ensure people are removing or repairing asbestos. It could be any kind of work. You could simply be hanging pictures in your house and nailing holes into the wall or sanding back a wall to paint, quite common tasks that all of us undertake, but if it is an asbestos wall you could be exposing yourself to that dust. Due to the fact that it's in our schools and hospitals, trying to remove it in a way that is safe and not to expose people working in that space is so critical.

We have an opportunity here to get on top of it. Silica dust is quite common, it is fair to say. It is a naturally occurring substance that is part of the earth's crust. We can be exposed silica dust to during mining, tunnelling or road construction. Those are the more natural ways. However, one of the most disturbing ways in which people are becoming exposed and where we are seeing most of the cases of silica dust related disease is with the use of engineered stone. It shouldn't be a surprise. Engineered stone is also known as fake marble out in the community. It has started to be used in benchtops and other parts of finishing off homes. It's a cheaper product, which is why people tend to go for it, but it's also a product that is, to be honest, crap. It's a little bit of stone and then a whole bunch of glue, and I see my colleague across laughing.

Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Technical term.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a technical term. He has probably come across it. We might see it in lots of units or apartments, but whilst it might be a cheaper product to install, the legacy it has can be profound. If the workers involved in cutting and installing that stone haven't done it in a safe way, they are exposing themselves to this deadly dust. Once it is there, it's a bit like the asbestos problem. We need to make sure we are monitoring where this stone already exists, where the engineered stone has been used, because in future renovations and future work, particularly on a home, it may have four or five owners before that stone is disturbed. In apartments it's a similar situation. But once it's there, it becomes a legacy, just like asbestos. I do believe, whilst this is a good first step and we are talking about a national plan, we do need to start to work with the states on looking at a ban on engineered stone because we do need to stop its use to make sure we don't have the same legacies as asbestos.

This government is committed to tackling occupational respiratory disease and undertaking a suite of reforms to ensure Australia's prevention and treatment measures are world class. We want to protect workers from unacceptable health risks like those associated with this deadly silica dust. We are developing a national silicosis prevention strategy and a national action plan in collaboration with health professionals, unions and industry as well as our counterparts in the states and territories. This is one of those spaces where there are federal government responsibilities and state and territory responsibilities.

We are investigating an education campaign for employers, workers and health professionals on how to improve prevention, detection and treatment. Treatment is critical for those who have already contracted the disease, and prevention is to ensure that further workers aren't exposed. We are exploring limiting the use of engineered stone, including import bans, as I've just mentioned. I believe it's a step we need to take to ensure that we don't have that future legacy and impose a future burden on future workers, future homeowners and so on and so forth. We're working with the states and territories, as I've mentioned, to ensure that we have a coordinated approach across all jurisdictions to keep workers safe.

This bill delivers on the recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish a national occupational respiratory disease register. It follows an increase in silicosis in stonemasons working on engineered stone benchtops. Whilst it is a naturally occurring substance, and we do see it in some workers in mining, it is particularly a problem in engineered stone and stonemasonry work because they have been using engineered stone. There is some debate in the industry about whether it can be used safely ever, and that is where the science needs to come in to tell us whether it can be used safely in any way.

The national register will capture information relating to respiratory diseases believed to have been occupationally incurred or exacerbated, and it will support the use of information to understand the true scale of these diseases in Australia to take action to further reduce exposure in workplaces. This bill will require medical specialists in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine and occupational and environmental medicine to diagnose certain occupational respiratory diseases and to notify the diagnosis, patient and exposure to the register via an online portal. Information is key to this. This bill is consistent with the recommendations of the task force. Whilst the register will be only silicosis initially, there will be the opportunity for the Minister for Health and Aged Care to prescribe other diseases following consultation with states and territories and the Chief Medical Officer. What's really important is making sure that we're capturing future diseases that we are able to detect.

Within this space, I want to acknowledge that, as with asbestos, Australia is a leader in the world. I note that any reform we do in this space will be watched in other parts of the world because they look to us for leadership in workplace health and safety. Just as we've been a leader in asbestos education and awareness, we can be a leader in silica dust reform and silicosis too.

This bill recognises the potential burden that notification will have on physicians. We will work to make sure that that burden is able to be managed in a way that is minimal, but the notification is necessary. If we really want to get a handle on how far and how deep this is and how many have been exposed, we need the data. The data is the first step that we are taking in our plan to make sure that we are tackling this deadly disease.

Every worker has the right to come home safe not just from injuries that occur in the workplace but from longer term injuries that we quite often don't focus on. We focus on being crushed by equipment and on trying to prevent those instant workplace accidents that may occur, but we do also need to make sure we focus on less obvious incidents, like exposure to dust—asbestos dust, silica dust or any sort of dust that may cause respiratory disease. Far too often, individuals exposed to silica dust may develop silicosis or asbestos and develop mesothelioma but have it dismissed as being from other factors, such as living with a smoker or being a smoker, but we know that's not always the case. We need to take seriously what's happening in the workplace in relation to dust.

In concluding, I want to acknowledge the leadership of the men and women who work in this space—those brave individuals who saw all of us to tell their stories—as well as the leadership of the ACTU, the AMWU and the CFMMEU, in making sure we all know that deadly dust is causing a huge problem in Australian workplaces.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate on the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Register Bill 2023. When someone goes to work, it's fair to expect them to go home at the end of every day, and it's fair to say that no worker should ever have to suffer from long-term health problems resulting from work that sometimes show up years after the work has been completed. But this is the case for many Australians who work with asbestos or were exposed to the harmful particles and who are now suffering from asbestosis. This is just one example of an occupational respiratory disease. Right now rates of these occupational and respiratory diseases are far too high in this country—unacceptably high. Nobody should go to work and contract such a disease, especially not when it is entirely preventable. Yet it still results in the death of people who were just doing their job.

Another occupational respiratory disease is silicosis. Not unlike asbestosis, silicosis is a long-term lung disease, caused by inhaling unsafe levels of silica dust and usually developing over a period of many years. People who work with materials like granite, slate and sandstone may inhale a fine dust that contains silica. These dust particles, once inhaled, can scar the lungs. This can make it difficult to breathe and in some cases means the patient will require oxygen to help them breathe. Having silicosis also increases the risk of other health problems, like tuberculosis, lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. It is a high price to pay for a day's work, and no-one should expect this to be the consequence of showing up to work to provide for their family.

More can be done to prevent these diseases. Workers can be spared from suffering the early death that comes from a disease such as silicosis. That is why our government is committed to tackling occupational respiratory disease and is undertaking a wide range of reforms to ensure that Australia is world class in our prevention and treatment measures and to make sure we are protecting workers from unacceptable health risks. Our work in this area has already started. We are talking to health professionals, unions and industry to develop a national silicosis prevention strategy and national action plan. It is in the interests of all these parties to make sure silicosis is prevented where possible. It will mean that unions and employers are looking out for workers. This will result in a healthier workforce, and medical professionals will have an eased workload, with fewer cases of this disease—which, sadly, are soaring right now in this country.

As with so many issues, education can play a major role in the solution. When it comes to preventing occupational respiratory disease, education is vital. This government understands this and is investing in educational campaigns for employers, workers and health professionals to improve detection and treatment. Employers need to know how they can make their workplaces safer for employees. Employees need to know how they can work in a way that is safe, and they need to understand the consequences if they are not making sure that they maintain safe work practices that prevent these diseases.

It's also important for all medical professionals to be aware of and alert to the existence and threat of occupational respiratory diseases so that these diseases can be detected early and receive the right treatment. We all know there are certain materials that increase the risk of producing the dust that contains silica and ultimately leads to workers contracting diseases like silicosis. One of these materials is engineered stone, which is often imported from overseas. We are exploring measures to limit the use of engineered stone, including an import ban, so that materials coming into our country and being used by our workers aren't leaving them with lifelong health complications.

But it's not the responsibility of the federal government to be the only soldier in the fight to prevent occupational respiratory disease. The states and territories also have an interest in responding to what has become an increasingly large issue. It is important that we work together so that we can achieve the best outcomes and develop an effective strategy and response. This is why we have been working with the states and territories to ensure we have a coordinated approach to keeping workers safe.

In recent years there has been an increase in cases of silicosis. This increase has been seen to be largely impacting those working as stonemasons and specifically those who have been working with engineered stone benchtops. This issue led to the recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry, and that is exactly what this bill is seeking to deliver.

The national registry will play an important role in helping to prevent these diseases. It will capture the information relating to respiratory diseases which are believed to have been caused as a result of someone's occupation, or diseases which are made worse in particular lines of work. We know that this is a big issue in Australia, but before we can act to respond properly and effectively, we need to understand the real size of this issue. That is why the information that will be collected by the registry is so important. This information will be vital to understanding the true scale of these diseases in Australia and will make sure that we are able to take action to reduce further exposures in the workplace. If we can't see the issue and its real size, we can't properly respond. This registry established by this bill will help us to see the issues we are facing so that we are able to act, prevent disease and properly protect workers.

This bill also gives attention to the important role that medical professionals play in fighting these diseases. It will require medical specialists in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine and occupational and environmental medicine who diagnose certain occupational respiratory disease to notify the diagnosis, patient and exposure details to the national registry via an online portal. This makes sense because it ensures that this registry is accurate and seeing the full picture of those being implicated by this issue. These medical professionals are also able to notify the registry of other occupational respiratory diseases where the individual provides consent.

While there are many respiratory diseases that can arise from a wide range of occupations, all of which present big risks to people's lives, at this stage we are following the recommendations of the task force. As a result, initially only silicosis will be a prescribed occupational respiratory disease. But this is still a huge step forward, and one which is necessary to protect workers, which is what the Labor Party does best. Going forward, that Minister for Health and Aged Care will be able to prescribe other diseases following consultation with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer and each state or territory.

We know these changes that will require medical professionals to notify the registry of any diagnosis of occupational respiratory disease could create some kind of burden. We want to make sure that this burden is as little as possible by limiting the mandatory element that must be notified to a minimum notification. A minimum notification will include sufficient information to identify an individual with a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease; the respiratory disease diagnosed; and the detail of the likely exposure that resulted in the disease, including the last and main exposures. While it may be a small burden, it is necessary to ensure there are fewer of these cases arising and needing the attention of these doctors.

There may also be cases where further information will be provided. This additional information can be provided when the individual has provided consent. This information can include relevant medical test results; demographic and lifestyle information such as their smoking history; and employment status and the details of each job where the individual believes they had exposure to respiratory disease causing agents. This is, again, about understanding the full picture, which will help us to work towards preventing these kinds of diseases from impacting workers in the future, and finding ways to better diagnose those suffering with these diseases and give them the best treatment possible.

This information will be available to the physicians treating the individual, but the bill also ensures the disclosure of notifications about the individual made to the national registry, including prescribed Commonwealth, state or territory authorities and state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies. It is important that the information is disclosed to state and territory health agencies because responding to the issue of workplace diseases requires us all to work together and, importantly, communicate. The disclosure to state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies will increase awareness of the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases in states and territories and will enable actions to be taken to reduce further work exposure to those diseases. If they aren't aware of the issue, they can't respond. This will mean states and territories will be fully aware of the impact of occupational respiratory disease in their state, which should help them to develop ways to take action against it.

States are not unaware of the issue of occupational respiratory diseases, and many states are doing a lot to act and address this issue. The bill recognises that several jurisdictions have registry functions currently in operation and does not exclude or limit the operation of any state or territory laws requiring the reporting or disclosure of information concerning occupational respiratory disease. This is not intended to override or shut down what is already happening in different states around Australia; this is about creating a combined approach and building onto what is already happening in different states. Given this point, it is important to make sure that this does not create a doubling-up of work when it comes to the requirements of the notification. Where the notification is mandatory in state legislation, the bill provides for notification of those diseases to occur through the national registry, should the state allow it. This will remove the potential for a physician in those states to have to notify twice—once nationally and then again to a state register.

This is not the only thing that our government is doing to keep workers safe. We're a party committed to making sure that workers in this country can go to work and provide for their families and do it safely. We're a party that was born out of the interests of workers. We exist to fight to improve the conditions of workers because everyone should return home at the end of their shift. In the case of respiratory disease, nobody should suffer as a result of what they did for work. Workers like stonemasons work hard; they should not have to find it difficult to breathe later on in life because of their hard work. The establishment of the national registry will complement actions across all Australian governments to reduce exposures in the workplace . It demonstrates the government's commitment to keeping workers safe.

I want to see a future without people who have worked hard all their lives having to pay the price of battling life-limiting disease caused by their workplaces in their retirement. We know that these diseases are preventable, and this bill is about finding the best way to ensure that they are prevented. Retirement should be a reward for a lifetime of hard work; it should not be spent battling the consequences of work, such as occupational respiratory disease. This bill is the first step to preventing this reality, and I commended bill to the House.

David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise today to speak in favour of the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023. This bill will establish a national occupational respiratory disease registry that will contain specific information on individuals diagnosed with or being treated for occupational respiratory disease such as silicosis. I would like to firstly talk about the disease I just mentioned: silicosis. Silicosis is a long-term lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust over a period of time. It is a silent killer. The particles, once inside the lungs, scar the lungs—this is what causes silicosis. A one-off exposure may not be immediately noticeable, but a career exposed to quartz, sandstone, soil, granite, brick, cement or engineered stone can lead to irreparable damage. In fact, evidence suggests that workers exposed to engineered stone are particularly at risk, as those workers experienced a more rapid disease progression and a higher rate of mortality, despite being exposed to silica dust for a shorter duration. Symptoms may start to appear in the form of shortness of breath, a dry cough and tiredness. These symptoms become worse with time. Worst of all is the fact that there may be no symptoms at all. Eventually, a silicosis sufferer will find walking and climbing stairs more difficult, and they'll start to notice trouble sleeping and will struggle to eat properly.

Last year, Australian Unions published the story of Joanna, which encapsulates just how unnoticeable silicosis can be. Joanna, a mother of two and a wife in her early 30s, was working in an administration role for a quarry belonging to a huge, multinational company that manufactured construction materials. Joanna's actual job had little to do with the manufacturing side of the business. In her role, Joanna oversaw things like purchasing and payroll from her office located around 90 metres from the quarry's crushing plant. The dust thrown up by the action of the crushing plant, however, was so pervasive that Joanna said:

You could taste it on your lips. Every time you'd go home from work you could actually taste it.

In her administrative duties, Joanna would also frequently run the safety meetings for staff—sometimes even tasked with taking the minutes. Nowhere in any of those minutes of any of those meetings was she or any other worker for the company made aware of a substance called silica. After returning from maternity leave, Joanna went for her routine medical, as required by her employer. Following an X-ray, she was informed that there appeared to be something on her lungs. A medical biopsy revealed that the 'something' was silica dust.

Joanna was fortunate. For many Australians who are exposed to silica dust and who develop silicosis, their risk of developing tuberculosis, chest infections, emphysema, kidney damage and lung cancer drastically increases. Indeed, the Cancer Council has estimated that approximately 587,000 people had occupational exposure to silica dust in 2011. Based on that number, the Cancer Council estimated that 5,780 people will have developed lung cancer.

We know today that silicosis cannot be treated, the damage to the lungs cannot be reversed, and only some symptoms can be properly treated to improve quality of life. It was the union movement that successfully campaigned for a National Dust Disease Taskforce and has lobbied successive governments for action since 2019, when members started to flag with their unions that they were suddenly being diagnosed with scarring on their lungs, and healthy workers who'd had long careers in quarries, construction sites, tunnels and masonries were suddenly struggling to breathe, developing lung cancer despite not smoking, and entering retirement stuck to a chair and connected to oxygen. Unions, fearing another asbestos-like health crisis, commissioned reports and surveys and began lobbying hard for government intervention and better outcomes for their workers.

It was these unions that urged governments to introduce a ban on the use of engineered stone products and that highlighted the need for greater leadership from the federal government to avoid the dust disease epidemic reaching the levels of public health challenge that asbestos had. The ACTU declared:

A failure to take these necessary steps will further risk thousands of workers contracting silicosis, an incurable and sometimes fatal lung disease.

I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the coordinated work from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Workers Union, the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, and the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union in advocating for their members most at risk of developing respiratory disease.

In April 2019 the Australian government committed $5 million to establish the National Dust Disease Taskforce to develop a national approach for the prevention, early identification, control and management of dust diseases in Australia. This was in response to the emerging trend of new cases of accelerated silicosis. The task force was established in July 2019 and provided some initial advice to the then Minister for Health in December 2019. This advice made 17 findings and five early recommendations. The early recommendations included the development and implementation of a prevention strategy, with an initial and immediate education campaign; the development of a national approach to capture data, information collection and sharing to improve the understanding of occupational dust diseases in Australia, including the staged establishment of a national dust disease registry; and research to better understand accelerated silicosis, with an aim to improve prevention and treatment options.

The task force provided its final report to the minister in June 2021. This final report made seven recommendations. These included: enhanced work health and safety measures; urgently undertaking regulatory impact analysis to identify and decide on measures for implementation that would provide the highest level of protection for workers; developing guidelines to identify people at risk of silica dust exposure and improving the quality, frequency and coverage of health screening for current and former workers; designing and implementing preventative measures; improving support for people affected by dust related diseases, and their families; improving the supports available for the health sector to improve the diagnosis and management of people affected by silicosis; establishing cross-jurisdictional mechanisms to improve communication and information sharing, coordinate response and report on progress; and implementing the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry as soon as possible, with an initial focus on mandatory reporting of silicosis, and voluntary reporting of other occupational respiratory diseases.

One of the most confronting statistics that was discovered was that nearly one in four engineered stone workers who've been in the industry prior to 2018 have been diagnosed with silicosis or other silica dust related diseases. This legislation recognises the important work that the states and territories have been doing to keep Australian workers safe in following some of the recommendations that were made in the National Dust Disease Taskforce report, and we can see practical examples of these recommendations being implemented. For example, here in the ACT a number of policy changes have occurred to enhance work health and safety measures. These measures include a ban on the dry cutting of engineered stone; a new minimum standard for safety control that will apply for mechanically cutting engineered stone, concrete, cement, bricks, mortar, masonry and natural stone; and that any future cutting of crystalline silica materials is expressly defined as 'high-risk construction work', and, additionally, that those involved in high-risk cutting must complete mandatory training by 1 October this year. These reforms will be enforced through penalties for individuals and businesses that fail to meet the new mandatory requirements, with fines ranging from $6,000 to $30,000.

Establishing the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry was a key recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce. As recommended by the task force, specialists in respiratory sleep and occupational and environmental medicine will be required to notify the registry of every diagnosis of occupationally caused silicosis. They may also notify the registry of other occupational respiratory diseases with a patient's consent.

This bill will establish a registry that will record the incidence of occupational respiratory diseases in Australia, which will therefore inform activities to prevent further workers being exposed to respiratory hazards. With no cure for silicosis, prevention is our best chance to successfully eradicate this disease for future generations of workers. The registry will have a multitude of functions, including: collecting, storing, analysing and publishing information on the diagnosis and progression of occupational respiratory diseases; monitoring the incidence of occupational respiratory diseases and preventive activities and the effectiveness of these activities; informing the identification of the industries, occupations, tasks and workplaces with a risk of exposure to respiratory hazards; providing prescribed medical practitioners with access to individual patient information on the registry to inform that person's health care for respiratory diseases; and supporting research, including through the identification of individuals for clinical trials and observational studies.

By being able to track where cases are coming from, how they're being treated and how they're being prevented, the government can use this data to assist with the formulation of a long-term and robust approach to eradicating silicosis and similar respiratory diseases from workplaces. Consistent with the recommendation of the task force, initially only silicosis will be a prescribed occupational respiratory disease, but the Minister for Health and Aged Care will be able to prescribe other diseases, following consultation with the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer and each state and territory.

The bill recognises the potential burden that notification will have on physicians and limits the mandatory elements that must be notified to a minimum notification. The minimum notification will include sufficient information to identify an individual with a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease, the disease diagnosed and the details and the likely exposure that resulted in the disease, including the last and main exposures. Further information can also be supplied where the individual consents.

In addition to ensuring notified information is available to the physicians treating the individual, the bill will enable the disclosure of notifications about an individual made to the national registry, including to prescribed Commonwealth, state or territory authorities, state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies. The disclosure to state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies will increase awareness of the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases in the state or territory and will enable actions to be taken to reduce further worker exposure to those diseases.

The national registry is about empowering and informing the government's long-term plan to eradicate silicosis. This is not something the country can fix in six months, and, due to the slow nature of the disease, the data suggests that numbers will still rise for some time and that the long-term effects will still be present in generations of workers. But the national registry will help formulate our response and will ensure that future generations of workers do not need to fear developing silicosis in their workplace.

The establishment of the registry will complement actions across all state and territory governments to reduce exposures in the workplace and demonstrates the Albanese government's commitment to keeping workers safe. We cannot cure silicosis, but we can prevent it. I commend this work from the assistant minister and the union movement, and I commend this bill to the House.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the government, we are aware that the current rates of silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases are totally unacceptably high in Australia. Silicosis is an irreversible lung disease. It affects workers who are exposed to silica dust—mainly in the construction and mining industries and those working in engineered stone industries. Currently there are no effective treatments for silicosis. Once damage from silicosis occurs, it cannot be reversed. The treatment tends to focus on slowing down progression and relieving symptoms. In severe cases, a lung transplant is required.

Silicosis is said to have been causing death and disability to Australian workers for over 100 years. According to the Lung Foundation Australia, around 600,000 Australian workers are potentially exposed to silica dust each year across various industries. Tragically, these are preventable conditions and often preventable deaths. Everyone has the right to feel safe and protected at work. This government is adamant and passionate about making sure that is the case. Workers should not be exposed to unacceptable risks in workplaces, fall ill or die because their employer failed—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate will be resumed at a later hour. Given the member's speech was interrupted, you will be granted leave to resume your speech when the debate is resumed.