Page 2078 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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is something that the task force is going to have to continually deal with—that diverted probably at least 1½ to two days of the task force’s time to find documents, go back and work out what was happening, speak to different asbestos assessors that have worked on that building over the years, in order to establish that it was not a Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos and that the issues were well in hand.
But it did divert the attention of the task force head, the head of WorkSafe ACT, asbestos assessors who are working on a lot of the homes and senior people for a period. And I expect we will have more of that, as people are very anxious about the asbestos and talk of asbestos when it is happening in Canberra.
I would just say, in closing, I do appreciate the support that is being provided by the Assembly, in particular by Mr Corbell as the minister who really did ramp up the government’s initial response to this and identified the issues as they were contained in the Downer house when he was minister for industrial relations, and the work that was done there, which I think positioned us well to move into this broader task force that has been established now.
I have taken ministerial responsibility for it, and that is because it does cover a number of government directorates. It also involves negotiations with the commonwealth, and it is appropriate that the head of government do that.
I also thank Mr Hanson, who has been very supportive in terms of the work that he has been doing in his role as Leader of the Opposition in speaking with all of the constituents but also for his representations to the commonwealth. Indeed the idea about the registered mail came from Mr Hanson to the task force head, who rang me and said, “What do you think? This is a good idea.” I said, “Yes, I agree, let us do it.”
The issue that we did have some difficulty with, only for a period, was how to access people’s data, names and addresses, as that information had been collected for revenue purposes and not for general information. We did cut through our own red tape on that and get a sensible solution, but I do appreciate that support. The fact that the Assembly will today again stand united in a unanimous vote of support for the work that is being done by the task force, the steps that are being taken, is a sign of solidarity of support for the residents of Canberra that this issue affects and support for our continued representations to the commonwealth government.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning, Minister for Community Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations, Minister for Children and Young People and Minister for Ageing) (12.06): I rise to speak briefly on this matter. The Chief Minister earlier mentioned that the task force response group has been very busy and that it is a whole-of-government response to this problem across Canberra.
As the new minister for workplace safety, I am very pleased that Minister Corbell, as previous minister, mandated for asbestos awareness training. As of 1 October all employers must ensure that any of their workers in the territory who may come in contact with asbestos as part of their daily work has undertaken asbestos awareness training. It is important to recognise that this is an issue that affects many and extends
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