Comcare’s Failure Costs Lives

Another worker has been killed at a CleanAway site. Another family is grieving. Another preventable tragedy has occurred under Comcare’s watch.

Last night, a waste management subcontractor, a spotter working alongside his colleague, was killed at the Ravenhall CleanAway facility. This is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern of failure.

While we acknowledge WorkSafe’s involvement in this investigation, the question remains, why is a company with CleanAway’s appalling safety record still operating under the Comcare scheme?

“The cross-jurisdictional response we witnessed last night should never have been necessary,” said AWU OHS Director Nick Blackford.

“It exists because Comcare has consistently failed to provide the rigorous oversight that workers in waste management and resource recovery desperately need.”

“These are some of Australia’s most vulnerable workers, often subcontractors, often from migrant backgrounds facing exploitation and unacceptable risks every single day. They deserve better than a regulator that has proven time and again it cannot keep them safe.”

AWU Victorian Branch Secretary Ronnie Hayden said the union had been warning Comcare about CleanAway’s operations for years.

“We have documented the risks. We have advocated for stronger protections. We have warned that without meaningful intervention; more workers would die. We were right. And we take no satisfaction in that.”

“It is long past time for CleanAway to be removed from the Comcare scheme. The federal government must act immediately before another worker is killed, before another family receives that devastating knock on the door, or phone call.”

Mr Blackford said Comcare’s regulatory model was fundamentally broken when it comes to high-risk industries like waste management.

“Every day CleanAway remains under this failed scheme is another day workers’ lives are put at unacceptable risk. We owe it to the worker killed yesterday, to his family, and to every worker across CleanAway’s operations to demand better.”

“The time for incremental change has passed. This regulatory model is toxic waste. It needs to be contained, removed, before it kills again.”