Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As Tony Zappia, the member for Makin, knows, it is very difficult for me to speak on this motion at this time. We have had some occasions in the most recent times for this issue to become very, very close to home—too close to home. This disease is a shocker. I've just seen it firsthand. One of my friends, who worked for me for 10 years, is dead and a very close friend is suffering with this. Both were people who would have had no exposure to asbestosis—none that you would think of. Mary would have done some work with her dad when they first immigrated here—pulled down some sheds or built some things, as new Australians did in those days. Ken, a teacher who grew up in a country town, was diagnosed just after the election campaign and died four weeks ago. He had the particular asbestosis that goes rampant once it gets a hold.

Former Senator Singh, from Tasmania, has been for the last 10 years an absolute warrior with regard to asbestos awareness through the Parliamentary Group on Asbestos Related Disease. That role has now been taken over by Lisa Chesters. Standing in for Lisa, because Lisa is on maternity, Libby Croker is in that role. For 10 years I worked with Lisa Singh on this, and we have changed the world over those 10 years. We were a pretty unpopular lot when we started, actually. It wasn't a big issue for parliamentarians. But, with 4,000 people dying a year, it is probably starting to eat into and affect a whole lot of families now.

I would have said to you, 'It's not going to hurt anybody around me,' but the doctors and specialists said, 'Look, Russell, if we open up any of you, we will find asbestos.' I have a holiday house on Phillip Island. Asbestos is still on the ground everywhere. You can't walk anywhere on Phillip Island without seeing a bit of asbestos. That's the stuff that our kids have been playing in for years—the sand that our kids play in. All the old houses built just before the war and after the war were built of asbestos. They cut it, they broke it down, they threw it out and they buried it in their gardens. Everybody was exposed to it.

It's expected that it will affect 120,000 Australians before this is finished. I don't know whether that is a tiny underestimate, from what I have just experienced. But it is something that we can do something about locally and at home. A contractor turned up next door at my sister-in-law's place one day and said, 'This is asbestos; I'm not touching it. I'm not putting in your gas system. I won't touch it.' He may have had a different experience to others. Others do the work, put on their masks, put the covering on and do the work. At the moment we've still got people who say, 'It's not a big issue. Don't worry about it; we'll worry about it.' Breathing in that dust will kill you—and, if doesn't kill you then, it can kill you later on.

So a shout out to former Senator Singh: your work was greatly appreciated by all the organisations. To my group down at Morwell who have been absolute stars with regard to this, Vicki and her team at GARDS: good on you. The Latrobe Valley was particularly affected by this. To everybody who has participated in all the workshops we've done and all the meetings we've had: thank you so much, because you're making a difference. You're actually making a difference to the awareness of how people can be killed by this horrible stuff. It's just awful. So to everybody out there: for heaven's sake, if it comes across as asbestos, get the experts in. You owe it to your children.

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