The federal government is setting up a national agency which will supervise the removal of asbestos from all government and commercial buildings in Australia by 2030. This national agency comes from the government’s own recommendations set out in their asbestos management review.
Bill Shorten, Federal Workplace Relations Minister has told ABC that the government strongly believes that Australia needs a national approach to the removal of asbestos and that this job can’t be left to local and state governments. Minister Shorten believes that the establishment of an Australian national body to assist with research, education and the detection of the risks of asbestos will certainly be part of their response.
Labor’s asbestos management review which was released in August 2012 recommended a national agency be set up to implement a plan to remove and manage asbestos in government and commercial buildings in Australia by 2030. This recommendation and the fulfillment of it by the federal government came after a study was undertaken on the long term health effects of children from Wittenoom the mining town in Western Australia. This town was only 1.6km from the deadly blue-asbestos mine which ceased operation in 1966 and Wittenoom closed soon after.
The study revealed that girls up to the age of 15 who lived in Wittenoom had a higher risk of developing the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma. Boys who lived in the town from the years 1943 to 1966 when the blue-asbestos mine was in operation also had higher rates of mesothelioma and a range of other diseases. By the end of 2009 there were 215 cases of asbestos cancer in 207 former residents of Wittenoom.
There has been a great deal of asbestos compensation claims in Australia as a result of this blue asbestos mine. One tragic mesothelioma compensation claim in New South Wales involved a young lady who developed mesothelioma following exposure to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, including playing in asbestos tailings as a child.
