Abstract
On 22 June 2005 the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia voted to establish an inquiry into workplace harm related to toxic dust and emerging technologies (including nanoparticles). The inquiry became known as the "White" Inquiry after Mr Richard White, a financially uncompensated sufferer of industrial sandblasting-induced lung disease who was instrumental in its establishment. The "White" Inquiry delivered its final report and recommendations on 31 May 2006. This paper examines whether these recommendations and their implementation may provide a unique opportunity not only to modernize relevant monitoring standards and processes, but related compensation systems for disease associated with workplace-related exposure to toxic dusts. It critically analyzes the likely role of the new Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) in this area. It also considers whether recommendations related to potential workplace related harm from exposure to nanoparticles could commence a major shift in Australian healthcare regulation.
Highlights
On 22 June 2005 the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia voted to establish an inquiry into workplace harm related to toxic dust and emerging technologies
The inquiry has become known as the "White" Inquiry after Mr Richard White, a financially uncompensated sufferer of industrial sandblasting-induced lung disease whose sentinel case and advocacy through the Australian Sandblasting Diseases Coalition (ASDC) was instrumental in its establishment
There are many core policy challenges that the ASCC will have to address in implementing the recommendations of the "White" Senate Inquiry
Summary
On 22 June 2005 the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia voted to establish an inquiry into workplace harm related to toxic dust and emerging technologies (including nanoparticles). The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations is asked to raise with the Workplace Relations Ministers' Council the need to enact nationally consistent standards for identification, assessment and compensation for sufferers and their families based on at least the standard on the NSW Workers Compensation (Dust Diseases Act) 1942, as well as removing restrictive statutes of limitation (Rec. 7, 9, 10 & 11)[1] These recommendations, the last, provide strong policy opportunities for an Attorney General with a firm interest in unifying areas of legal regulation in Australia and a Federal government willing to display its genuine concern for protecting worker safety in a period of considerable upheaval in workplace relations. Implementing these policy recommendations becomes a matter of national urgency, given the burgeoning level of research already taking place in this area in Australia
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