Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am very pleased to introduce the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry Bill 2023.

This bill delivers on the recommendation of the National Dust Disease Taskforce to establish a National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry, in response to the increase in silicosis among Australian workers.

Silicosis is an irreversible lung disease. It is caused by workers' exposure to silica dust. Health screening conducted by some jurisdictions in recent years indicates that nearly one in four engineered stone workers who have been in the industry since before 2018 are suffering from silicosis or other silica dust related diseases. These are entirely preventable conditions, and, all too often, entirely preventable deaths.

Prior to entering parliament I served as president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, a position I was very proud to hold. Over my term I met countless workers living with occupational respiratory diseases—workers who through no fault of their own had been exposed to unacceptable risks in workplaces, workers who all too often died because their employers had failed to protect them.

The protection of workers is core Labor business. Our Labor government is wasting no time in acting on the devastating statistics we're seeing in relation to occupational respiratory diseases. We've seen the release this morning of further statistics related to silicosis. This devastating disease is only becoming more and more common. Every case of silicosis is unacceptable. Every death is devastatingly preventable.

In introducing this bill to the House, I'd like to tell the story of a woman named Joanna. Joanna is 34. She is the mother of two young girls. She came to this House a few weeks ago to tell several of my colleagues, ministers and members of parliament her story.

She worked at a quarry run by a large multinational company. After she returned from maternity leave, Joanna was asked to undergo a fit-for-work test. It was through this testing that Joanna was diagnosed with silicosis. She's not who many people would first picture when they think of a worker diagnosed with silicosis. She is a young woman and she largely worked in a reception role at the front office of the quarry. Yet through her work, Joanna was exposed to dangerous silica dust. She explains that no matter where you were in the plant, you would be exposed to dust. It would be 'all over your clothes, all over your skin'.

Joanna says it's the unknown that is so terrifying. 'What I've since learned about silicosis is that there is no cure, and you just don't know how it will progress.' She says: 'At the moment I'm feeling healthy, but I don't know if that will be the case in one year, let alone five or 10 years. As a mum of two young daughters, that terrifies me. I fear this will affect my life and my family's life, and I am angry. I should never have been exposed to this disease.' Joanna is absolutely right. She should never have been exposed to this disease. And it's with workers like Joanna in mind that I present this bill to the House today.

The bill establishes the National Occupational Respiratory Disease Registry to capture information on respiratory diseases believed to have been occupationally caused or exacerbated. The national registry will also capture associated respiratory disease-causing agents that led to the disease.

The national registry will capture and share data, where appropriate, on a number of things:

This is vital information that will aid in detecting new and emerging threats to workers' respiratory health, and it will inform incidence trends, help inform actions to be taken to reduce further worker exposure, support research into occupational respiratory diseases, and assist in targeting and monitoring the effectiveness of interventions and prevention strategies.

The bill will require medical specialists in the fields of respiratory and sleep medicine and occupational and environmental medicine who diagnose certain occupational respiratory diseases to notify the diagnosis, the patient and the exposure details to the national registry via an online portal.

The bill provides the minister for health with the power to make rules prescribing which occupational respiratory diseases require notification. Consistent with the recommendations of the National Dust Disease Taskforce, initially only silicosis will be prescribed as mandatory. However, this power—which would require further consultation before it can be exercised—will ensure the national registry can respond to other threats to workers' respiratory health in the future.

The bill will also allow respiratory and occupational physicians to notify the national registry of information about an individual who has been diagnosed with a non-prescribed occupational respiratory disease, where that individual provides consent.

The bill provides for two categories of information to be notified to the national registry: the minimum notification information and additional notification information. The minimum notification information is that which needs to be supplied to notify an occupational respiratory disease to the national registry. This includes information identifying the individual with a diagnosed occupational respiratory disease. It requires notification of the respiratory disease itself, and details on the exposure including the last and main exposures.

These are all vitally important pieces of information.

The additional notification information is information that can be supplied where the individual has provided consent. This may include relevant medical test results. It might include demographic and lifestyle information such as things like their smoking history or their employment status, and details of each job where the individual believes that they had an exposure to a respiratory disease-causing agent.

The bill will enable the disclosure of notifications about an individual made to the national registry, including to:

The disclosure to state and territory health agencies and work health and safety agencies will, of course, increase awareness of the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases in that state or territory and will enable actions to be taken to reduce further worker exposure to these diseases. This is vitally important work.

The bill does not exclude or limit the operation of any state or territory laws requiring the reporting or disclosure of information concerning occupational respiratory diseases.

As Queensland and New South Wales have existing registers that require the mandatory reporting of some occupational respiratory diseases by physicians, the bill allows for states with such registers to provide in their state legislation that the notification of these diseases will occur through the National Registry so that there is no need for a physician in those states and territories to notify twice: once nationally, and once again to a state register. They will only need to report to the national register.

The bill complements other work underway by the government to address silicosis, including:

It will include targeted education and training for physicians and other healthcare professionals on the diagnosis and management of workers affected by silicosis and occupational respiratory diseases.

Work is underway:

As announced by my colleague, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, all jurisdictions have agreed to further reforms of Australia's model work health and safety laws to ensure they protect Australian workers. This will include stronger regulation of high-risk crystalline silica processes as well as other changes to further educate and protect workers in workplaces where exposure to silica dusts and other agents that may cause respiratory disease may exist. Ministers have also tasked Safe Work Australia with developing further advice on a ban on the use of engineered stone products in Australia.

This bill demonstrates the government's commitment to understanding and improving the occupational respiratory health of workers. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.