Page 107 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
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Work safety—fatal accidents
MR PETTERSSON (Yerrabi) (5.27): I rise today to speak on the recent deaths of two workers on construction sites in Denman Prospect. When all of us come here to work each day we never have to consider the possibility that we may not make it home. That expectation should be no different for our construction workers.
The death of two construction workers on sites within a month of each other is nothing short of a tragedy. My heart breaks for the families of the two workers, and I offer my condolences to them. Serious injuries and death at work are not things that we should ever accept as inevitable or freak accidents. Deaths such as the ones we have already seen this year are preventable. To act like they are otherwise would be to do a disservice to construction workers across the territory.
Almost a month ago a 47-year-old man died following an incident when a pallet of tiles fell on him. A few weeks later an incident on another site in Denman Prospect involving a 60-year-old man resulted in the second death on an unsafe site in less than a month. The man fell from the second storey of a residential complex a mere 150 metres from where the first incident occurred. The idea that already this year there have been two deaths on residential construction sites is appalling. Tragic and preventable deaths such as these only go to show the serious consequences of dodgy developers and their unsafe work practices.
Canberra can and should be the safest place to work in the country but a bad culture in the construction industry where bosses feel it is acceptable to put profits ahead of safety prevents this being the case. Already in 2020 we have seen the number of construction site-related deaths double across the country in just the first month of the year compared to January 2019. Moreover, falls from a height and being hit by falling objects, combined, account for almost a quarter of work-related deaths.
Alarmingly, in the past month WorkSafe investigations resulted in over 70 non-compliance notices being issued over 28 construction sites across the territory. The rapid residential development of Canberra’s suburbs has led to developers cutting corners in an attempt to meet unrealistic deadlines, putting workers increasingly at risk of serious injury or death, particularly during the extreme heat and smoke conditions of the past month.
There are no excuses for bosses that put their workers’ lives at risk. The risky nature of construction work does not mean that it is excusable for developers to be lax on safety. In fact, the exact opposite should be the case. We must hold to account those who do not take safety seriously. It is the least we can do in response to the deaths of Canberra workers.
Transport—Liberal Party policy
MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (5.30): I rise this evening to respond to a couple of bizarre and fictional assertions made repeatedly in question time today by the transport minister regarding the Canberra Liberals’ transport policy. We have heard
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