Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Education and Employment References Committee on industrial deaths in Australia, together with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents presented to the committee. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

This is an important report on industrial manslaughter. In tabling this report, I'd like to acknowledge the many families that are here in the public gallery today. These families are here because someone they loved dearly was killed at work and never came home. These families have travelled here at their own expense from all over Australia, including New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. They are here because they do not want other families to experience the suffering that they have. They are here because they are demanding change. Like all the families who participated in this inquiry, they have endured and are still enduring immense pain, anguish, grief and anger. The human impact of an industrial death is catastrophic and far reaching. For the families and friends of those individuals killed at work, the terrible and profound human cost and associated consequences they must suffer are lifelong and often all-consuming. The committee is keenly aware that the retelling of traumatic experience takes an emotional and physical toll. On behalf of my fellow committee members, I sincerely thank all the families for their courage and strength in sharing their stories and concerns, which have informed our deliberations on this very important topic.

I'd particularly like to acknowledge the advocacy of Mrs Kay Catanzariti, who is here in the gallery today. Kay's 21-year-old son Ben was tragically killed on a Canberra construction site in 2012. Kay has been tireless in her campaign to raise awareness of the issues impacting families with loved ones who never came home from work. Her lobbying efforts were instrumental in the referral of this inquiry, and she is highly committed to seeking legislative and regulatory change to improve the frameworks surrounding industrial deaths. I applaud her determination and strength in speaking out.

Safe Work advises that, as of 4 October, there have been 97 Australian workers killed at work in 2018. This is unacceptable. These workers and the thousands of workers killed before them did not go to war; they simply went to work. Every single workplace death is preventable. No-one should go to work and not come home. It is unacceptable that a rise in precarious employment practices and the pursuit by many companies of profit at any cost has led, in too many instances, to a corporate culture with a reckless disregard for the welfare of workers. We need to change the way workers are treated. Workers should never be treated as mere disposable assets. Workers must be treated with a proper regard for their workplace rights and safety. During the course of this inquiry, it became clear that the current legislative regulatory framework for dealing with workplace deaths is grossly inadequate.

Employers that disregard the risks to the lives of their workers and whose conduct negligently causes the death of a worker must be held responsible for such destructive behaviour. It is absolutely necessary for corporate entities to be held accountable for their actions, including facing prosecution for industrial manslaughter for the worst examples of corporate or individual behaviour. For those organisations that wilfully flout the existing work health and safety arrangements and whose actions result in a catastrophic outcome of loss of life, it is entirely warranted that serious consequences flow. This is particularly the case in organisations which are considered to be repeat offenders. This is why the committee recommends that Safe Work Australia, with the Commonwealth, state and territory governments, introduces a nationally consistent industrial manslaughter offence into the model work health and safety laws, using the current Queensland laws as a starting point. We believe that the offence of industrial manslaughter will send a clear message about the Australian community's expectations of safety in the workplace. Corporations must be held accountable both morally and legally. Where appropriate, the corporate veil must be pierced.

Another matter raised during the inquiry relating to the accountability of corporations was the existence of insurance policies designed to indemnify corporations and individual directors against financial penalties handed down for criminal breaches of the work health and safety legislation. Companies that take out this directors and officers insurance show an inexcusable disregard for the consequences of their actions. This behaviour in itself is reprehensible. Given that the prospect of personal liability for work health and safety breaches is one of the core drivers for the improvement of corporate safety culture, the committee has concluded that there is an urgent need to resolve this issue. The committee recommends that the model work health and safety legislation be swiftly amended to make it clear that contracts which purport to offer insurance against criminal penalties are unenforceable and illegal.

During the inquiry, the committee was disappointed to hear that investigations into industrial deaths were often compromised in terms of the duration of the investigation, the quality of the investigation process and some investigators' attitudes towards the investigation itself.

I draw a comparison between the way an industrial death is investigated and the way a road vehicle accident death is investigated. The road vehicle accident death is treated as a crime scene and the incident is investigated on the basis that it may lead to criminal charges. The life of a worker is no less precious during their working hours than it is during their commute to work, yet evidence provided to the committee indicates that such a rigorous and professional investigative approach is not equally applied to industrial deaths.

The committee finds it imperative that the work health and safety regulators and law enforcement agencies undertaking the investigation of an industrial death do so with the correct attitude—that is, that the death they are investigating is potentially a criminal matter, not merely an accident.

This is why the committee recommends that Safe Work Australia work with work health and safety regulators in each jurisdiction to develop a policy that stipulates that all industrial deaths must be investigated as a potential crime scene.

The committee also recommends that Safe Work Australia work with the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and work health and safety regulators to develop and deliver standardised training modules for investigators. The committee hopes this will ensure all investigators have the appropriate skills, experience and attitude to carry out timely, high-quality investigations of industrial deaths and other serious breaches of work health and safety laws.

Throughout this inquiry the committee heard many compelling stories from families forced to navigate the myriad of complex formal processes that follow an industrial death, all while dealing with overwhelming grief and other mental, physical and financial burdens.

Guided by these insights, the committee is making a number of recommendations aimed at improving the system for families. For example, the committee is recommending that Safe Work Australia work with the work health and safety regulators in each jurisdiction to identify and formalise family outreach mechanisms so that all impacted families are provided with the information and support they require in a timely manner. The committee is also recommending that each jurisdiction make funding available for a range of mental health and counselling support options, including in rural and regional areas.

I am hopeful that, if implemented, these and other recommended measures will lead to greater support and transparency for these families who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in incredibly distressing and difficult circumstances.

This has been a comprehensive inquiry and the committee has made 34 recommendations. I would urge governments and policymakers to look carefully at the committee's recommendations and to consider seriously their implementation. Change is required so that no worker goes to work in Australia and then does not come home.

I would like to once again thank all the individuals, families and organisations who assisted the committee during this inquiry. I would also like to thank my colleagues on their committee for their work over the past seven months. I would also like to give my very genuine thanks to the committee secretariat staff for again assisting in putting together what I think is a comprehensive and high-quality report. I now commend this report to the Senate.

Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Deputy Chair of the Education and Employment References Committee I rise to briefly add some remarks on the same committee report. I certainly wish to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Marshall vis-a-vis the extraordinary work put in by the secretariat and by all our colleagues who participated in the inquiry. I have recently been appointed as deputy chair, so I was not participating throughout this inquiry. I only came along to the last hearing once I had joined the committee. But, from reading the transcripts of what had transpired beforehand, you certainly get a very strong sense that the situations that were being investigated and looked at by the committee were deeply, deeply harrowing for the families involved. Losing a loved one in an industrial accident is always going to be a tragedy, and nothing can help those people overcome that loss.

But I do wish to acknowledge all the work that went into the committee report. I thank the secretariat and thank all my fellow committee members. The report and its findings are an important step forward in the area of workplace health and safety. Workplace related injuries and illness carry significant tangible costs to the community, individuals, family, workmates and workplaces. The health and safety of workers is of the utmost importance to all, particularly the prevention of serious injuries and deaths in Australian workplaces. It has to be a fundamental objective of Australian safety laws and associated frameworks to ensure that all workers come home safely after every day at work.

The inquiry has taken into consideration extensive evidence from a wide range of sources and witnesses, including many of those who have lost loved ones. We have listened carefully to the evidence by family members, colleagues and friends of those who have died, and we thank them for their courage in sharing their stories and experiences. Their willingness to share these very painful experiences has been critical in helping our understanding of the importance of support for victims' families, and that I think is one of the key sets of recommendations to come out of this report.

There were a diverse range of views and approaches presented on the adequacy of the current framework surrounding prevention, investigation and prosecution of industrial deaths in Australia. Whilst coalition senators support many of the recommendations in the report, there are some that we support in part and there are others that we are not able to support. We believe that the key here is to have the most effective policy response to achieve the best outcome. And more Commonwealth law is not always the way to do that, particularly when you're looking at an ongoing harmonisation of a series of state jurisdictions where the states have significant responsibilities in this area.

It is also worth noting that we have seen a reduction in industrial deaths in workplace fatalities over the last decade. Yes, absolutely, any death is one death too many, but it is at least a positive to say that workplace fatalities have fallen by 50 per cent over that period of time.

Again, I wish to thank all my colleagues, but most particularly I wish to thank all those who gave evidence to the inquiry, particularly those who lost a loved one in an industrial accident. Thank you.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every family should expect that their loved ones return home at the end of their shift or at the end of their day's work, but for the families of approximately 200 workers in Australia each year this doesn't happen. The impact of a death at work is devastating for families and it's devastating for the wider community and the economy as well.

The committee heard from parents, children, partners and loved ones, and I've got to say at times it was hard to listen, but I felt very privileged that the people, the witnesses, many of whom are up in the gallery today, gave that evidence to us. I felt very privileged to be on that committee and to be able to hear that evidence, because it's not easy to do—it's not easy to stand up and talk to someone about the grief you're feeling. For them to have done that is just so highly commendable. But we can and we must do better, and we know that.

While I remember, I'd also like to thank the secretariat involved in this committee, because I don't think it was easy for them to sit and hear the evidence every day either, and they did such a sterling effort, as they always do.

This committee report makes 34 recommendations, which the committee believes will make workplaces across the country safer. As Senator Marshall said, the report was quite extensive, so today I'll only have the time to address a few of the issues raised. The committee held eight public hearings across Australia, including in Hobart in my home state of Tasmania. From evidence given by the ETU at the Tasmania hearing we know that Tasmania has the second highest fatality rate in the country, behind the Northern Territory, and nearly double the third highest jurisdictions of Queensland and Western Australia. We have to ask why the rates are so high in Tasmania. Tasmania has the highest rates of fatalities in agriculture, forestry and fishing as well as in the public sector. So I would urge the Commonwealth and the Tasmanian governments to work together in ending this human tragedy.

Nationwide in 2016 almost 70 per cent of worker fatalities occurred in just three industries: the transport, postal and warehousing industries, with 47 fatalities. There were 44 worker fatalities in the agricultural, forestry and fishing industries and 35 worker fatalities in the construction industry. Of course, some occupations, like truck driving, are particularly dangerous, and I spoke earlier today with regard to that.

In their submission to the committee, the Transport Workers' Union quoted Professor Ann Williamson as saying:

Heavy trucks are disproportionately involved in fatal crashes on our roads and the trucking industry represents the highest number of work related fatalities across all industries in Australia.

Their submission went on to say:

During the 12 months to the end of March 2008, 184 people were killed in 163 fatal crashes involving heavy trucks, with fatal crashes involving heavy rigid trucks increasing.

Any truck driver or TWU official knows of the high rate of industrial deaths in that industry. One of the truck drivers, John Waltis, told the committee in Sydney:

I've been in the industry for over 40 years and, yes, we had accidents back in the early days, 40-odd years ago, but nowhere near as many as what we're having now, and it is because of the undue pressure put on the drivers through the corporations or the companies they subcontract to do the work.

…   …   …

I have known of over 50 deaths in the industry because I've been in it such a long time. I don't want to see one more.

I too share that belief about too many truck drivers dying on the road, and I don't think the government's done enough to reduce that tragic statistic. While some Safe Work Australia figures argue that the number of industrial deaths in Australia is declining, even one work related death is one too many, and these figures aren't declining fast enough.

We're also seeing many deaths occurring due to occupational exposure to substances that result in industrial diseases which ultimately lead to the workers' deaths, such as asbestosis, mesothelioma and black lung disease. A witness at the Hobart hearing, Trevor Gauld, from the Electrical Trades Union, outlined why he felt the Safe Work Australia figures were misleading. He said:

What we're seeing is latent illnesses; cancer clusters and these sorts of things—long-term exposures to chemicals. It's different industries. For whatever reason, as you're aware, Senator, your government did the things it did around manufacturing and we have less of that now. So it's a different risk profile. I think what the statistics show is that change; they don't show a decline.

He also said:

It's not that I don't accept the figures; I just think that they mischaracterise the circumstances. We have a significant increase in the change of the modes of employment, for example, and the way that that might get counted, as opposed to someone being deemed an employee or not deemed an employee. We also have issues around the way Safe Work Australia captures that data. All the jurisdictions don't feed the same data in. So what's classed as a workplace fatality in one jurisdiction isn't necessarily classed as a workplace fatality in the Safe Work Australia statistical data capture—the datasets that they gather.

Given that, the committee recommends that Safe Work Australia expand the work-related traumatic injury fatalities dataset to capture data on deaths resulting from industrial diseases.

One of the issues that challenge employers, employees and unions alike is that there are variances in work health and safety laws across jurisdictions. While Australia has a set of model work health and safety laws developed in 2011 by Safe Work Australia, they have not been implemented in Victoria and Western Australia. The aim of the work health and safety model laws is to provide all workers in Australia with the same standard of health and safety protection regardless of the work they do or where they work. The model work health and safety laws comprise the Model Work Health and Safety Act, the Model Work Health and Safety Regulations and the model codes of practice. In addition, a state or territory can also elect to amend the model laws as they apply in their own jurisdictions. Given this situation, the committee recommends that Safe Work Australia maintain a public list of amendments that jurisdictions make to the model work health and safety laws.

One of the first things you need to improve a situation is data that accurately reflects what is happening. The committee found that Safe Work Australia data in relation to compliance enforcement activity does not reflect the prosecution outcomes for industrial deaths, which are a smaller but unqualified subset of disaggregated work health and safety data. The committee is of the strong opinion that Safe Work Australia must work with each jurisdiction to collect and maintain a dataset with more detailed information on the prosecution processes and outcomes of industrial death incidents.

The changing nature of work is having a dramatic and negative impact on the safety of work. The committee heard that the rise of precarious employment practices had led to a corporate culture where there is a distinct lack of care for the safety of workers. Maurice Blackburn, in their submission, detailed the situation:

Over the past two decades, business operators have continued to find new ways to avoid their responsibilities under Fair Work legislation and other legal and regulatory structures, including WHS and workers’ compensation frameworks. ‘Gig economy’, sham contract and labour hire arrangements require the service provider to be a self-employed independent contractor, rather than an employee, thereby abrogating the business operators of employer responsibilities.

…   …   …

By insisting that people who work for them be self-employed independent contractors, business operators avoid having to take responsibility for the provision of safety nets that Australians have come to expect, including the right to be safe at work.

The committee is persuaded by the evidence that there are negative safety implications relating to the increased use of temporary and labour hire workers and other forms of precarious work. Additionally, the committee agrees that the rise of such precarious employment practices has led in some instances to a corporate culture where there exists a distinct lack of care for the safety of the worker.

Although nothing will bring back those who have lost their lives or even ease the heartbreak, the committee made a number of recommendations to improve the use of compliance and enforcement tools and penalties for breaches of work health and safety laws, which can vary greatly from state to state. And we have to ask: why is a life in one state or territory worth more than in another state? As I mentioned at the beginning of my contribution, the report and the recommendations are too long to cover in their entirety in the short time allocated to me, but the gist of the report is this: too many Australians are dying at work. We can and we must do better as a nation.

As an aside, this morning I met a young lad whose name is Charlie. Charlie was up in the gallery a minute ago. Charlie is 16 months old, and I was devastated to hear, when I was talking to Charlie's mum, that Charlie's grandad died six months ago, as an industrial death. I have thought all afternoon about what Charlie will miss out on by not having his grandad around. He won't have his grandad at his birthday parties or at Christmas time. He won't have his grandad to share all those special moments that grandads share. I say to Charlie's family and to all the other witnesses up in the gallery: we can't quite feel your pain, of course, but we do really want to make a difference. I think that this committee has worked really hard to come up with recommendations that will make a difference.

We've got the report. It's now up to the Commonwealth government and governments around the nation to adopt its recommendations. It's the least that we can do and the least that we owe those hundreds of Australians who die at work unnecessarily each year.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to speak on the report on the inquiry into the prevention, investigation and prosecution of industrial deaths in Australia. This inquiry was much needed because the safety of our workers is of utmost importance. We really must have zero tolerance for work related deaths. I started my working life as a civil and structural engineer, so I do know firsthand the dangers that lurk on construction sites, which are among the deadliest sites for workers. There is absolutely no excuse for employers to not provide a safe workplace and there should be zero tolerance for negligent behaviour on worksites. It is quite apt, I must say, that the committee is handing down its report during National Safe Work Month, but, of course, safety should be a priority not just in October but every single day.

The Australian Greens do welcome the inquiry and support the recommendations made by the committee. Most importantly, this report is a move towards creating a new offence for industrial manslaughter, which has long been Greens policy. Grieving families and friends have long demanded this change, and it gives me hope when I see the other political parties also becoming receptive to this. As a general principle, the Greens have a preference for a model that puts industrial manslaughter into the Crimes Act. But, through this inquiry, I also note the broad support for the Queensland model, and the Greens welcome moves to have this extended throughout Australia.

Another very important aspect of this issue is how industrial deaths are actually defined. The definition needs to be broadened to include all work related deaths, not just traumatic fatalities. This includes, in particular, deaths caused by work related diseases, which the recommendations address, and suicides should also be covered. This would much more accurately reflect the impact on workers and would allow their families to access appropriate remedies. Consideration of workers who die by suicide, particularly after poor handling of compensation claims, is also currently inadequate and should be addressed in any new reforms.

Further, there is also a very strong case for the collection of data and statistics regarding industrial deaths. The statistics we get from Safe Work Australia, as has been said earlier, do not accurately reflect the scale of work related deaths that actually occur in Australia. The Australian Council of Trade Unions raised these concerns with the committee, saying the current state of our data continues to result in an underestimation of the true extent of work related deaths, including those arising from work related diseases. The fact of the matter is that any work related death should not only be counted but also be completely unacceptable.

With respect to recommendation 31 regarding the establishment of pro bono legal assistance to families during coronial inquests, we think this should be extended to include 'and any other assistance deemed necessary'. We are aware of cases where even accessing inquests has been particularly difficult, because of financial constraints, for example.

This inquiry was nearing its end when I joined the Senate. But, in my brief participation in the inquiry, I met with Ms Robyn Colson, whose 24-year-old son, David James Colson, was killed in a workplace incident on 8 October 2007. This month marks 11 years since Ms Colson lost her son—a tragedy, the scale of which, of course, is unimaginable to anyone who has not gone through something like this. David was an abalone diver in Tasmania. However, on this particular day, he was working as a deckhand for another abalone diver. Ms Colson told us at the inquiry hearing:

The boat he was working on sank and he swam for 5½ hours before dying of hypothermia. He was a wonderful person who did not deserve to have his life stolen from him. Losing a child this way is unlike any other type of grief and it is permanent. A part of our soul is missing. We live a divided life: the time before the workplace accident and the time after.

This is heartbreaking, but what happened next didn't make it any easier on the Colson family. The coronial inquest into David's death took so long that the family could never bring criminal charges, as the limitation period for prosecutions had expired. This is quite an unacceptable situation and further highlights the inadequacy of our work health and safety laws. Other families also spoke about coronial inquests taking a long time and extending their anguish, with no answers at hand and no-one held responsible.

I do hope the government adopts all the recommendations of this report, but, more importantly, that they implement them speedily and act on them. The friends and families of people whose loved ones have suffered industrial deaths want the government to make strong reforms and make them now. Some of them are here today in this chamber, and I welcome them here. It was my absolute privilege to meet them earlier this afternoon, and I thank them for the immense amount of courage and strength that they have shown to push for workplace safety reforms so that no-one else has to go through the trauma and heartbreak that they have.

For the families, friends and loved ones of those people who have been killed at work or who have died as a result of workplace related disease and suicide, the heartbreak, pain and anguish are lifelong realities. This inquiry and the resulting recommendations are a welcome step in fixing our laws. It is also important that adequate funding and resources are directed towards work health and safety regulators, who can then ensure compliance and allow for more effective preventative measures to be put in place, because our aim should be absolutely zero work related deaths. Every worker has a right to a safe workplace, and they deserve to come back home safe, healthy and well from work.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution on the arrival in this chamber of this very significant report on industrial deaths. I acknowledge those who have travelled here, physically, from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and as far away as Western Australia, but the journeys that you've undertaken with your bodies are nothing in comparison to the journeys of the heart that you're undertaking right now.

I want to particularly acknowledge one woman who's sitting up there, Mrs Kay Catanzariti, who, in a great leap of hope in a time when politics is treated in our media and in our society as an instrument that can deliver nothing except conflict, contacted Senator Marshall, a Labor senator from the great state of Victoria—not as great as New South Wales, of course, but he had an open heart, open ears and a willingness to work on this issue, which has plagued this nation for far too long.

We heard from Senator Bilyk that 200-plus people die per year. As one of the parents said earlier today in a meeting that we had at nine o'clock in Bill Shorten's office, 'Australians accept deaths in the workplace.' That is a chilling sentence, and we can no longer allow that culture to prevail. That is what this report is addressing—that cultural reality that we live with today.

You are here today as citizens in a democracy making history. You're in a historic building. I know that you just think you're ordinary Australians, but this is what's great about this country. Ordinary Australians, when we stand up for what we believe in and fight for what's right, can do amazing things. You've already done amazing things, and now we will try to do our best with what you have given us.

Words matter. It will surprise you, as it often surprises me, that across this nation right now there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who are listening as they're driving home from work—happily, I hope—to their families, and they'll hear what we're doing here. So today, in preparing my speech for this moment, I thought: what words could I say? We talk about the work ahead of us, and I acknowledge the great contributions of the senators who have spoken here before me this evening, but I'm going to do what I can to get as many of your words on the record as possible, because they were so powerful. I'm sure some of you sat in English classes and thought you'd never have the gift of the gab and you'd never say things that would matter, but I'm going to try to read as much as I can of what you gave us into the Hansard record to be part of the history of this nation, because you've done something very powerful and significant by participating in this inquiry and bringing it to be. Mr Jack Brownlee was killed at work in 2018, aged 21. Dave and Janine Brownlee, his mum and dad, are here. Mr Dave Brownlee, I bet you don't even remember what you said, but this is just a bit of what you put on the record, and it was pretty amazing, because truth has a voice:

I'm here with my wife and also representing my two sons, Mitchell Brownlee and Jack Brownlee. Jack was 21 years old, and he will always be 21 years old. He will never age. He went to work on 21 March and was caught in a trench collapse that covered the boy up to his neck, with one arm free. About 9.30 on that day was the last time they—

Jack and his co-worker Charlie Howkins—

were seen and they weren't found until 11.30. They weren't rescued until 2.30. In the first two hours, Jack would have had the most horrific time. His mate—

Charlie Howkins, Lana Cormie's husband—

was dead beside him, metres away.

Jack would have been screaming for help, and the other boys were at smoko. They were left on their own. There was no supervision of these boys. There was nothing. At the time, I was at the hospital with my wife, who was suffering severe migraines. We received no phone call from the company until 5.30 that afternoon.

Beforehand, I had a friend who worked in Geelong. He rang me and informed me. Things were on Facebook about a trench collapse in Ballarat and he thought our son Jack was involved. I raced up there to the site and was met at the roadblock by the police. We weren't allowed in. Jack had just been evacuated, they said, and they were putting him in an induced coma. I was informed by the police that the best thing to do was to hightail down to Melbourne and meet him at the hospital. We still had not heard from the company.

This is an excerpt of what Mrs Janine Brownlee said:

The hardest thing for us was to leave our son and drive home. The hardest thing was to drive there in the first place, getting updates telling us, 'Hurry up. Your son mightn't make it.' And then the hardest thing was to drive home the next day, leaving our boy at the hospital. That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do: knowing he was there on his own; leaving my baby there … Things need to change. How we were treated was so wrong.

Mr Charlie Howkins was killed at work in 2018, aged 34. His wife is here, Dr Lana Cormie. She said:

I am a doctor of veterinary science and I am married to Charlie Howkins, who was a registered building practitioner and worked in civil construction at the time of his death. I am—and we were—parents to two small children: Sophie, who is four, and George, who is one year old. Charlie went to work one day in March and he never came home. He became just another of the dead bodies which are carried out of a workplace every second day in Australia. Words simply cannot do justice to the devastation which has followed. His death is a result of a failure in the culture, values, systems and laws of our country. What is left in the wake of this failure is our broken family.

Mr Robert Cunico was killed at work in 2018, aged 60. Robert's daughter, Ms Ashlea Castle, is here and so is his wife, Debby Cunico. Ms Castle said:

My dad lived for almost an hour in the most horrific conditions while being cradled in the arms of a colleague before succumbing to his injuries. Despite the efforts made by the first responders and emergency services, his injuries were so catastrophic that he was never going to survive. My father should never have sustained even a paper cut whilst he was on the job, let alone injuries so severe that his life was ended. My dad was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, an uncle and a friend to many.

Mr Luke Murrie was killed at work in 2007, aged 22. Luke's parents, Mark and Janice Murrie, are here. Mr Murrie said:

Luke was 22 when he was killed. He was killed in an unsafe work environment where inexperienced workers were instructed to do an unsafe lift. The unsafe method was quicker and therefore it was cheaper. There was no meaningful deterrent for the employer to do it safely. He put the dollar before safety.

Mr Ben Catanzariti was killed at work in 2012, aged 21. His parents, Kay and Barney, are here today. Kay said:

I'm here today not by choice. I'm here because my son Ben, who was 21 years old … was killed when a 39-metre, three-tonne concrete boom collapsed and crushed his skull in 2012. You senators have chosen this career to represent the Australian people first and foremost, to listen and to protect all Australians and take responsibility for their health and wellbeing in our ever-changing world, and we need to unite regardless of which party we belong to. We are all the same. We are human beings. We have the right to live our lives without fear of going to work and not coming home.

Mr Jason Garrels was killed at work in 2012, aged 20. Jason's parents, Michael and Lee Garrels, are here. Lee said:

My son Jason Garrels aged 20 was fatally electrocuted on the 27th February 2012 in Clermont, Queensland. My son was employed as a labourer for approx 9 days with Daytona Trading Pty Ltd … I went to assist at the resuscitation not knowing it was my son. Words cannot describe the impact that it has had on me and my family; I was thrown into a life that was a surreal nightmare which became my reality.

I want to acknowledge: Mr Glen Biddle, killed at work in 2007, aged 39, and his sister Shauna; Iremar Moussa, killed at work in 2016, aged 55, and wife Linda; Mr Jarrod Hampton—Troy and Robert Hampton are here today; Mr Daniel Bradshaw, killed at work in 2017, aged 37; Mr Jayden Zappelli, killed at work in 2013, aged 18, and his father, Greg; Mr Chris Patrick, killed at work in 2014, aged 25, and his partner, Christiana Paterson. Thank you for coming to be here today for the reception of this report. Thank you for your work as Australians. We honour you and we'll do what we can.

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was not intending to speak on this report. I happen to be here for chamber duty. But listening to those very forceful contributions from senators, I thought that as a former national union official and someone who has witnessed workers being killed and who had to talk to their families I just had to say a few things about this report on industrial deaths in Australia. Firstly, I thank those senators involved in the report and those senators who have contributed to what should be significant changes to protect workers at work in this country. I also acknowledge the families who are here and thank them for being here and for their involvement and support for the inquiry.

Senator Brockman spoke about statistics. I don't think anyone really sees a worker who is maimed, injured or killed at work as simply a statistic. As Senator O'Neill said, they're a father, a brother, a sister, a grandfather, a husband or a wife. They're a friend. This is just a terrible situation. And I know that we talk about statistics a lot in this place. But I don't think Senator Brockman should have been quoting statistics at such a time. It's a terrible situation that families find themselves in. One death is one death too many. One death means that a family is in grief, that a family has lost a loved one, that a family's life is changed forever. It's just unacceptable in a modern society that people who profit from the labour of working class Australians are not held accountable for the death of that worker and the tragedy that it brings on individual families and communities around this country.

The last time I spoke in this place about a worker being killed was in relation to a young man who was killed at the Barangaroo ferry hub, Mr Tim Macpherson—a young man with a young family, his whole life before him, with a fantastic wife and a young family—just taken from us because he was unlucky enough to be working on a rust bucket barge that shouldn't have been in New South Wales. It came down from Queensland and didn't have the proper certificates to undertake that journey. The health and safety on that barge were poor, the conditions were terrible and Tim ended up dead—unacceptable.

The union movement have been calling for industrial manslaughter laws in this country for I think longer than the Greens have even been a party. I remember having these debates over 20 years ago in my union, the AMWU. These calls grew even louder when we saw the behaviour of James Hardie when they knew that their product was killing their employees. James Hardie covered it up, James Hardie made huge profits and James Hardie did that with impunity. If ever there was a reason, regardless of all the other families that have suffered terribly, James Hardie on their own should have been enough in this country to hold businesses accountable for their lack of concern and their breaches of safety against working people in this country.

I remember the then state secretary of the AMWU—Paul Bastian, a great Australian and a great trade unionist—going over to Holland and chasing James Hardie, who were moving their business headquarters around the world to try to avoid their responsibility for working people in this country. Paul Bastian did a great job, supported by Greg Combet. The union movement and the ACTU did a fantastic job. I remember the coalition and John Howard opposing the ban on the importation of asbestos in this country. I remember watching a great mate of mine—the former president of the AMWU, Brian Fraser, who was a big, six-foot-plus Irishman—dying with mesothelioma. He couldn't grab a breath. The companies and the insurance companies tried to avoid any responsibility. We had deathbed hearings to deal with it. Workers don't get a fair go in this country. Employers get it far too easy when it comes to workplace deaths.

I do want to acknowledge Senator Williams. Senator Williams was a farmer. Senator Williams knows what happens to farmers in this country and to workers in the farming sector. It is one of the most dangerous industries in the country. I was fortunate enough for Senator Williams to support me when I was arguing for the National Workers Memorial, which has been built in Canberra with the support of Senator Williams. We can build as many memorials as we like, but it is important to recognise the symbolic importance of the workers who built this country. We had memorials for everything in Canberra, but nothing for the workers who died building this country. I acknowledge and thank Senator Williams for the support he gave in ensuring that the National Workers Memorial was built.

I just finish on this: if the coalition government spent a fraction of the amount of money they spend on attacking the trade union movement and on stopping trade union officials from getting on to jobs to support workers then there would be far fewer deaths in this country. We've got an organisation, the ABCC, that is a disgrace. It gets in there and stops workers getting access to their union so that the union can make sure they are on safe work sites. Not only is there a need for laws to be changed on penalties, regulations and legislation to hold employers accountable but there need to be changes in legislation in this country to allow workers to get access to their union so that the unions can make sure that they go home safely. This is a huge issue.

Again, I want to express my sympathy to the families that are here. I can tell you that the Labor Party will continue to do whatever we need to do to make sure that your tragedy doesn't happen to other families.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, your time has expired. Are you seeking leave to continue your remarks?

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Marshall for presenting that report and thank the other speakers. They were very well-presented speeches. I wish those up in the gallery all the best.