David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Nobody should die for a shiny benchtop. That's what the Greens believe. Tragically, across this country, there are thousands of people working in the trades who are being exposed to manufactured stone. We know, as certainly as night follows day, that cutting the product, with its high silica content, will kill a proportion of those workers. Since 2019, the Greens have been calling for a ban on manufactured stone, a product that is very much the asbestos of the 21st century. Since 2019, one of the reasons we haven't got a ban on manufactured stone is the behaviour of Safe Work Australia, which has dragged the chain on setting national standards to keep the people working in this industry safe.

Time after time, Safe Work Australia has tried to come up with ways of safely handling a product that everybody knows is inherently lethal. If you look at the way in which you should deal with a hazard in the workplace—this is work health and safety legislation that Safe Work responsible for—the first response to a hazard in the workplace is, if it's possible, to remove the hazard. Don't put on PPE; don't come up with other safe-handling measures. If you can remove the hazard from the workplace, that's what the legal responsibility is—to remove the hazard. Why hasn't Safe Work led a national move to remove this hazardous product from our workplaces? It is because they simply haven't had the political direction from the previous government or from this government to do what's right. I've had some people suggest that Safe Work can't put a ban on manufactured stone because of constitutional limitations on what the federal parliament can do.

Ninety-nine per cent or more of this product is imported. It's imported from a handful of producers around the world, who are themselves involved in litigation with their workers and consumers and installers all across the globe. Many of them aren't able to get product liability insurance because insurers see this as the asbestos of the 21st century. They see another James Hardie coming down the line. Overwhelmingly, this product is imported. We know, when it comes onshore, this product is going to be cut in workshops where workers are going to be exposed to high silica dust. It's going to be installed in construction sites around the country and shaped and moulded where workers are going to be exposed to silica dust. We know that silica dust is going to gather in their lungs and, in hundreds or thousands of cases, lead to silicosis, which can literally be a death sentence for those workers. They choke on their own lungs.

What should the Commonwealth be doing? By all means, let's pass the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023 and get a register and find out across the nation where workers have been exposed to silicosis and where they've had diagnoses of silicosis. Let's do that. But the real thing the Commonwealth parliament should be doing—the real thing the Labor Party should be doing if it cares about working people—is immediately passing an importation ban on high-silica manufactured stone, and we could do that tomorrow. But, instead, we have Safe Work saying, 'Oh, no, let's have better tests to measure to a finer micron level the amount of silica dust in a workplace.' That won't work. We know it won't work because you can't measure down to the level of silica dust that is needed to create a safe workplace. They also say, 'You should only cut it using wet-cut technology.' We know that that is not going to work because there will always be workplaces that will cut corners and not have that technology on site. Once you cut it using wet-cutting technology, the dust dries out and can then be spread in the workplace anyhow.

Safe Work is not doing its job of keeping people safe. For three years, it's not been doing its job. In 2019, I was on a New South Wales inquiry that heard from unions. I particularly want to credit the work of the CFMEU, who have been consistent in this space. At a New South Wales, federal level and ACT level, the CFMEU has said its members should not be exposed to this dangerous product because it is killing them. The union has said to the New South Wales government 'put a ban on it' and the New South Wales government has failed. It said to the federal Labor government 'put a ban on it' and the federal Labor government has failed. Instead, we get this weak bill about finding out where the workers who are dying of silicosis are. That is Labor's response, not banning the importation of it but finding out where the young workers who are dying of silicosis are, so that different state compensation schemes can give them a payment and maybe pay their widows and their kids an ongoing payment. That's Labor's response and it is criminal.

I remember sitting in two distinct state inquiries into this when I was a state parliamentarian. I remember the young workers in their late 20s and early 30s who came to the inquiries and told us about their diagnoses, some assisted by oxygen, told us about their young families—their kids—and told us they had a terminal diagnosis because they had been exposed to high-silica manufactured stone.

When the Greens heard that evidence, we supported the call from the construction union, the CFMEU, for an immediate ban and we were shut down by the New South Wales government, which said, 'Safe Work Australia can handle that; they have an ongoing process in place.' We said 'Good luck with that; we want a ban.' What has Safe Work done? Now, 3½ years later, bugger all. They come up with this bill to have a register so we can see where the workers who are dying of silicosis are.

The Greens won't oppose this bill. We will support the bill. I commend the work of my colleague Senator Steele-John for making the bill a little bit better. But the CFMEU has said loud and clear that, if the federal government doesn't move and put the ban on by the middle of next year, it will move and put a national ban on using this deadly product. What's the federal government going to do then? Clamp down on the CFMEU for taking unlawful industrial action because it is trying to save the lives of its members? A national ban by the union on working with this dangerous product is coming 1 July next year, because the union knows what the Albanese government doesn't—that this is a dangerous lethal product.

I say, again, nobody should be dying for a shiny benchtop. No young worker should be dying for a shiny benchtop. This product has only been available since 2000 or 2001 in this country. We had kitchens before then. We had commercial fit-outs before then. This is an indulgence for a small handful of people who want a slightly cheaper shiny benchtop, and who are willing to see the people who shape it, work it and install it die for that. Why do we have a federal Labor government if not to heed the call of the CFMEU and ban this bloody product?