Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In the light of his previous answer, I ask the Prime Minister: will he now personally apologise to the families of the four young men who have died in connection with the government’s Home Insulation Program.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the families has contacted me and I have written a letter to that family. That was entirely appropriate given the sentiments expressed by the family concerned. Secondly, each of these families is experiencing great tragedy and any death in this industry or any industrial death is one death too many for the nation. Certainly, for the families concerned they are all unspeakable tragedies. There are 300 industrial deaths in this country each year.

I would also say in response to the Leader of the Opposition that any such death is a matter of profound regret to all concerned Australians, including me and including the government. The key challenge is to get on with the business of establishing the facts concerning each of these industrial deaths. The coronial inquiries, the WorkCover related inquiries and the Electrical Safety Office inquiries are all the properly constituted bodies to establish the facts concerning each of these tragedies. That is the case with practically all industrial accidents which occur in this country. I believe it is important to allow those processes to continue. I believe they are best done in a spirit of calm deliberation. It is regrettable that any deaths occur, including these four tragedies.