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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-28 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

INTERNATIONAL WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development) (11:54): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. P. CAICA: The matter that I raise today has ongoing importance to all South Australians, but is one that is highlighted on this particular day. Across the world, 28 April has two parallel designations: International Workers Memorial Day and the World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

International Workers Memorial Day began in Canada in the late 1980s to recognise landmark labour laws in that country, and is now recognised worldwide as a day of action and remembrance on workplace health and safety. In conjunction with this, the International Labour Organisation has, since 2003, declared the same day as the World Day for Safety and Health at Work to promote safe, healthy and decent work.

Today in Adelaide I joined about 200 others at an ecumenical service at the Baptist church in the city to honour those who have died from a work-related injury or illness in South Australia, to remember those people and to lend support to those South Australian families whose lives have been scarred by the loss of a loved one whose death has occurred in the course of or due to their work.

For those of us in this house charged with the responsibility of making laws for our community, that service on this day serves as a stark reminder of the terrible human toll that has taken place in Australia because of unsafe workplaces or practices. National figures show that more than 250 Australians die every year from workplace trauma, while an estimated 140,000 are seriously injured. In a recent report, the former Australian Safety and Compensation Council (now known as Safe Work Australia) estimated from 2005-06 data that workplace harm costs Australia $57.5 billion in total and that, on average, it costs the community $125,700 for each incident of workplace harm, including the forgone economic activity.

This day calls for reflection about the lives lost and harmed. It is also about reinforcing a commitment to action to make our workplaces as safe as possible in the future. Workplace safety is not just a South Australian issue: it is a worldwide challenge. On a global basis, the International Labour Organisation estimates that more than two million people die from workplace injury and disease every year and that 270 million safety failures occur. The ILO also estimates the total cost to be about 4 per cent of the world's GDP.

The concern that is held internationally about workplace harm was highlighted in June last year with the signing of the Seoul Declaration on Safety and Health at Work at the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work held in South Korea. In Australia, official figures continue to show that, in particular, our farms, mines, construction sites, factories, warehouses and transport hubs present significant risks to worker safety, and these remain the focus of preventive programs in our state.

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