A Wagga builder who was almost killed in a workplace accident says he understands a Riverina mother’s push for a safety inquiry.
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Xavier Higgins fell onto a fence just before 8am on February 27, 2017, severing nerves and an artery in his right arm. Rushed to hospital after losing most of his blood, doctors spent nine hours trying to repair the damage and save his life. Mr Higgins had undergone physiotherapy and hand therapy ever since, slowly rebuilding his strength and returning to work.
“I didn’t expect to get hurt,” he said. “It was a normal morning until it went pear-shaped. A mate said stuff like this doesn’t happen to people we know – you hear about it in the news – but you don’t know someone that’s gone through it so it’s been a bit of a wake up call.”
The comments came after Kay Catanzariti successfully campaigned to get a Senate inquiry into industrial deaths in Australia off the ground. Mrs Catanzariti’s son was killed by a falling concrete boom at a construction site in 2012.
According to Safe Work Australia, construction is one of the most dangerous industries, with roughly 12,000 serious injury claims each year. In 2017, 12 construction workers were killed, but so far this year 9 workers have lost their lives – a sharp increase in fatalities.
The inquiry had the backing of Wagga lawyer Julianne Carroll, president of the south west slopes branch of the Law Society of NSW.
“Kay has done a great thing for the community by knocking on politicians’ doors until she got an answer,” Ms Carroll told The Daily Advertiser. “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.”
After almost 20 years in the building game, Mr Higgins said most of the people he knew did the right thing when it came to workplace safety.
“It’s better now than it was 20 years ago and probably will always get better and safer, but you’ll always get the freak accidents,” he said, referring to his own injury. “I think the awareness is up there for employers to sit down with their workers and after the accident I sat down with the boys and told them we need to be on top of everything. Sure, you’ll get the odd one that bends the rules, but Safe Work will get onto them.”
The closing date for submissions to the Senate inquiry is June 6.