Several weeks ago, two New South Wales families in Penrith – the O’Farrells and the Lancasters – raised the issue of asbestos contamination in Telstra’s pits to the government. The residents were not only concerned for their own health and safety, but for the safety of the young men working in the pits. According to one particular resident, “They were only young blokes wearing normal clothes – no protective fear – but they didn’t seem to be worried.”
Despite being alerted of this asbestos issue several weeks ago, the Australian government has only recently commenced the removal of asbestos from the pits, which are located just outside the front doors of homes and shops. Penrith mayor, Mark Davies, has conveyed his disappointment in Telstra’s delay in cleaning up the dangerous fibres. He stated that “I don’t think it was acceptable that we had this problem in the first place; I was disappointed every day it wasn’t cleared up.” The trained asbestos removalists must wear protective clothing and facemasks so as to meet the Occupational Health and Safety standards.
There is also confusion regarding the number of pits that contain asbestos in Australia. Although remedial work has commenced on eleven pits in Penrith, there are still a multitude of sites that are possibly contaminated with this toxic substance. Australian workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has stated that Telstra provided him with an estimate of the number of pits that contain asbestos. On 3 June 2013, Shorten announced that “There are eight million pits … between 10 and 20 percent of these pits may have asbestos-containing material in them.”
In response to this, Nicole McKechnie, Telstra spokeswoman, has submitted that Telstra could not possibly have provided these statistics to Mr Shorten. Telstra has only recently started recording the dates in which pits are put in; as such, it would be impossible to identify which pits contain asbestos, as the substance was banned from use in Australia in the early 1980s. However following the intervention from Mr Shorten’s office, McKechnie has since changed her position, and has admitted that “a very rough guesstimate was given to the minister”.
To date, the exact number of pits that contain asbestos remains unknown.
In the past, many workers have been exposed to asbestos in Australia whilst undertaking work in the Tesltra pits. Many old Telecom workers have been diagnosed with asbestos conditions in Australia.
