No More Moombas - AWU Delegates to Debate Workplace Incidents

Over 200 workers and AWU members from across South Australia will meet this morning to discuss strategies to tackle the contentious issue of preventing incidents at South Australia’s major hazardous facilities.

The workers, from local government, manufacturing and the petro-chemical industry, will meet at the AAMI Stadium in Adelaide and hear from speakers including Premier Mike Rann, SA Industrial Commissioner Mick Doyle and National AWU OHS Director Dr. Yossi Berger.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten, who will be in Adelaide for the conference, said that South Australian AWU members are worried by the increasing number of major workplace incidents, and want the SA Government to tackle the issue head on to avoid another disaster like the blast at Santos' Moomba plant in January.

"Over the last five years AWU members have had their lives placed in jeopardy by serious incidents at major hazardous facilities across the country. In January a major explosion at Moomba placed hundreds of workers at risk and this was followed by a major ethanol explosion in Wollongong" Mr Shorten said.

"Thankfully these incidents didn't result in the death of any workers; however we fear it is only a matter of time before one of these incidents will result in the devastation and fatalities we experienced after the Longford Gas Plant explosion in 1998. Today we will be putting our demands on the table and will be calling for the State Government to introduce Major Hazardous Facilities legislation to avoid these types of incidents in the future."

AWU South Australian Secretary Wayne Hanson said, "AWU members across the state have personally told me how concerned they are about the Moomba incident being repeated at their workplaces - we are meeting today to make sure it never happens again."