Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the very serious matter of workplace deaths and injuries which have been in the media over the last few months. Too often, it's very clear that workplaces do not effectively protect their employees. I was checking the statistics as I was walking to the chamber and, sadly, as at 8 June, according to Safe Work Australia, 57 Australian workers have been killed at work this year. I'm very mindful of the work that was done in the They never came home report. Former deputy president Gavin Marshall and I were on the education committee at the time, and we took incredible evidence from around the country. Very passionate advocates right across this country were very concerned about the nature of death in their workplaces and a failure of governments to respond in ways that protected those sites and ensured that, instead of calling a workplace death an accident, it was actually investigated properly as an industrial death.

I'm very, very concerned, particularly about the construction sector, which seems to have had an incredible number of workplace deaths just in recent weeks. The reality is that, due to Australia's rugged landscape, we have a high percentage of Australians who are working in dangerous jobs. Whether in mining or farming, working with heavy machinery or in Australia's extreme heat, Australians do work in tough and dangerous conditions every day. We're tough and resilient, and we'll do the hard yards. But you should be able to go to work and know that there are certain protections to make sure that you come home to your family safely. Critical in that role are the unions who are a doorway to providing better protections in the form of workers' rights and support for workers where needed, and I want to acknowledge in particular the CFMEU for their incredible support of people, which continues to this day.