Michaelia Cash pressured to release report on work for the dole tragedy
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Version 0 of 1. The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, has come under renewed pressure to release a report into the death of a teenage work for the dole participant in Queensland. Josh Park-Fing, 18, fell from a flatbed trailer as it was towed by a tractor during a rubbish-collecting assignment at the Toowoomba showgrounds in April. He suffered critical head injuries and died on the way to the hospital. Park-Fing was sent to the site as part of the government’s work for the dole program and his death has raised fears that participants are being forced into unsafe worksites and activities. His death prompted an investigation and report, which has been handed to the federal government. But calls by Labor and the Greens for that report to be released have been rebuffed. Other documents, including a risk assessment of the Toowoomba site, have also been kept secret, despite a freedom-of-information request lodged by the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union. Now a grassroots campaign has been launched by the union, named “Justice for Josh”, which the AUWU hopes will pressure Cash into releasing the reports. The union’s president, Owen Bennett, said finding out exactly what happened to Park-Fing was crucial in ensuring that other participants are kept safe. “There’s 90,000 other Australians who are in work for the dole at the moment and we need to make sure that they’re safe,” Bennett said. “If the government aren’t able to give us the assurances that the correct safety processes were put in place on this site in Toowoomba, how do we know that other work for the dole sites are safe? “It’s a matter of time before we get another Josh Park-Fing if the government doesn’t put in place the proper safety processes now.” But the minister’s office said it could not release its report while a Queensland work safety investigation continued. “Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is investigating this incident and have not yet finalised its investigation,” a spokesman said. “It would be inappropriate for the department to release the report or put matters on the public record before Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has completed its investigation.” Labor has also written to Cash to call for the government review of the death to be released. It has pointed to an audit report on safety in the work for the dole program completed last year but released last month, which showed many sites were failing to meet safety benchmarks. That report, authored by Ernst and Young, audited 200 sites and found that 36% of work for the dole activities did not meet the average safety benchmark. The shadow employment services minister, Ed Husic, said the opposition believed releasing the report on the Toowoomba death was crucial to ensure other program participants were safe. “The opposition believes there is a vital requirement for the government to spell out the concrete steps taken to improve workplace safety in this program,” Husic wrote in his letter to Cash. “This is especially so considering subsequent reports about other workplace safety incidents last year that potentially compromised other program participants, most notably where one participant was exposed to asbestos.” The union is urging its members and supporters to contact Cash’s office. It has also started a petition and promised further action. Bennett said the union’s freedom-of-information request was rejected because releasing the documents could have harmed Park-Fing’s employment contractor, NEATO. “We were basically fobbed off from the very beginning,” Bennett said. “We were told that we had to provide all this extra information, the whole process lasted about eight, nine months. “It’s not much to ask for, these are unemployed workers who are being forced to undertake all kinds of activities. The least assurance the government can provide is ‘are they safe?’.” Bennett urged unemployed workers in the program to know their rights. He said participants had a choice to exert their right to do a non-work for the dole activity, which could be volunteering or education-related. “If people think they’re in an unsafe workplace we encourage them to exert their right to do a non work for the dole activity, where they feel safe.” |