More than five years after the death of her son, a Riverina mother is closer to justice than ever.
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Kay Catanzariti’s son Ben was just 21 years old when he was killed by a falling concrete boom on a Canberra building site in July 2012. Investigations established the sudden collapse was due to the fracture of high strength bolts, but the cause of the failure had been under contention ever since, with criminal charges dropped and multiple inquests.
Now, Mrs Catanzariti’s long campaign to establish a national inquiry into industrial deaths has been won, with senators backing the push to tighten up laws. The “inquiry into industrial deaths in Australia” will look at the prevention, investigation and prosecution of industrial deaths.
The victory was welcomed by Wagga lawyer Julianne Carroll who said a formal inquiry was desperately needed.
“Kay has done a great thing for the community by knocking on politicians’ doors until she got an answer,” the Commins Hendricks director said. “It’s pretty dismal what workers and their families get. We’ve seen in the past 10 to 15 years an erosion of workers’ rights in NSW and it’s really important the senate sees what happens in workplaces.”
According to Ms Carroll, the family of a worker killed in NSW was entitled to $791,850, but the weekly amount paid for each child under the age of 16 was just $141.80.
“That’s pretty dismal,” she said. “For a family with teenage boys that wouldn’t cover the grocery bills let alone health insurance or school fees and excursions.”
Labor senator Gavin Marshall helped Mrs Catanzariti get the inquiry off the ground and met with her on Thursday to talk about the next steps.
“There needs to be a good, hard look at how the whole (workplace injury) system works… people think there can get away with things and think there are no repercussions because they’ve got smart lawyers, we need to look past that and ensure just penalties apply to people who should know better or should be responsible,” he said. “We need to change the way we treat workers, not just with injuries but wage theft, job insecurity, more and more across the board people are treated as an asset but they have rights and the purpose of society is to benefit people, but it’s been hijacked by corporations or dollars.”
Mrs Catanzariti said if someone had worked for an inquiry before Ben was killed maybe she wouldn’t have had to.
“Someone has to be held accountable in these cases, if someone is killed or seriously hurt at work there needs to be an investigation by someone who knows what they’re doing,” she said. “There are still deaths occurring, politicians need to show that they’re prepared to make the changes and listen to people and move forward.”
According to Safe Work Australia, there have been nine construction deaths this year, a shocking number considering there were a total of 12 construction deaths in 2017. Between 2003 and 2016, 3414 people were killed at work, with construction the third most deadly industry after transport and agriculture.
In an open letter in 2017, Mrs Catanzariti wrote: “We are the average working class family, no degrees, no influential friends, aren’t wealthy or well off and with no legal expertise. We are grieving the loss of our son, our minds aren’t functioning even now… it’s hard enough just to get out of bed each day and breathe.”
When the inquiry was announced, Senator James McGrath said all sides of politics were united on the need to prevent deaths and injuries in the workplace.
“The government is currently conducting a review of the leading causes of fatalities in the building and construction industry,” he said. “All levels of government, unions, employers and their representatives need to continue to work together to ensure that workplace deaths are prevented and Australian workplaces are healthy and safe.”
The inquiry was referred to the education and employment references committee for report by September 20, 2018. The closing date for submissions is June 6.
Senator Marshall said he wanted to hear from as many ordinary people as possible in the inquiry.
“A lot of people who experience the tragedy around these events are not the sort of person to sit down and write a 30-page, well-argued submission for a senate inquiry,” he said. “I’m not just interested in hearing from people with those skills, if someone has something to tell the senate committee and they can’t write a submission but will come tell their story we still want to hear from them. Write to the committee and outline the circumstances of the story they want to share.”