Deep Down Agreement

This opinion piece was published in the Herald Sun on Thursday 10 May 2007.

A YEAR ago, it seemed the entire nation was holding its breath, its gaze fixed on the tiny Tasmanian gold mining town of Beaconsfield.

More than two weeks earlier, on Anzac Day, three miners had been buried by a rock fall.

Who can forget the days that followed?

While the town and the nation watched and waited, rescue workers laboured in terrible conditions

After the tragic death of Larry Knight in the initial collapse, the rescuers were determined Todd Russell and Brant Webb would be brought out alive.

And what joy when they finally stepped out of that lift, when they ``tagged out'' and their families flew into their arms. It was as if the nation had erupted, tension dissipating in a collective outpouring of relief.

If Australia could bottle the sentiment and attitude of those weeks, we would all be the better for it.

One of my most enduring memories from that time is the way politics was put to the side. Union and management at the mine combined tirelessly to do what needed to be done.

But as the euphoria subsided, hard realities kicked in.

The mine was effectively closed. Workers lost their jobs.

Some left town, seeking opportunities interstate. Some vowed never to go underground again, but didn't know what else they could do.

The trauma and stress took its toll.

RELATIONSHIPS were strained. Some still find difficulty sleeping. The impact of the tragedy cannot be overstated.

Yet sadly, that part of the tragedy is played out without cameras and national attention on worksites around Australia every week.

Whenever a worker is killed or injured on the job, the impact is felt far beyond their immediate circle.

That is why it is so important to try to prevent it from happening again.

After every workplace disaster in which someone is killed, there is an inquiry. The one into the Beaconsfield disaster, conducted by Greg Mellick, SC, is still sitting.

Each inquiry makes its recommendations and the assumption is that safety will progressively improve until such disasters are prevented.

Clearly this hasn't happened, but why not?

Why are we losing the lessons of the past?

The Australian Workers' Union has been researching mining disasters and the inquiries that followed them.

The inquiries have a great deal in common.

Almost all recommend more training and education, along with changes to equipment, standards, processes and duties of specific personnel on site.

Most inquiries have recommended improved occupational health and safety systems and more government oversight.

Such inquiries are unlikely to recommend legal action against a company or personnel and almost none called for an individual to be held personally responsible for making sure its recommendations were followed through.

That last point may well be the crucial one.

We know that there is rarely a smoking gun in these cases, a single event or person we can point the finger at and say ``you did this''.

Blame for the sake of it is not useful and blame will not ensure workers go home to their families.

We need inquiry recommendations to be followed through. Someone must be put in charge, to evaluate how effective the changes are.

IF those changes are not working, someone must fix them. Maybe there does need to be a penalty attached if the recommendations are not put in place in a timely fashion.

We don't yet know what Mr Mellick, SC, will find over Beaconsfield, although we do know communications at the mine were poor before the rock fall.

The Beaconsfield mine is under new management and has just reopened. It has increased safety measures and our workers there feel confident in them.

I have every expectation that the Beaconsfield mine is already learning the lessons from its past. But those same lessons must be learned around the country.

If we know that most disaster inquiries will recommend more training and education, why not undertake that training and education now, instead of waiting for tragedy?

No one should go to work and not go home again. No community should be torn apart. No family should lose loved ones.

We need to take the goodwill that symbolised the Beaconsfield rescue and use it, not wait for another disaster to realise we are all on the same side.