With as yet unborn children likely to contract asbestos-related disease, just how far will Bill Shorten's proposed new agency go towards fixing the problem?
AUSTRALIA HAS THE HIGHEST per capita incidence of asbestos-related disease in the world. Now we are finally stepping up to confront this toxic legacy.
When it comes to creating a prosperous and sustainable nation, the cause couldn't be more important. When asbestos was available in Australia, approximately 750,000 tonnes of asbestos was mined and 1.5 million tonnes of all forms of asbestos was imported, bringing the total to 2.25 million tonnes in society.
While some of this asbestos has been cleaned up, much of it remains in ageing houses and commercial buildings. Health experts have taken a hard look at Australia's asbestos stock and estimate that over the next 20 years, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Australians will be diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
Asbestos deaths are not expected to peak before 2020 and in the words of Federal Employment Minister Bill Shorten "children who aren't even born yet will die of asbestos related disease".
In this context, Shorten has moved to create the national Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency. This new agency would be responsible for co-ordinating a national response to what has become Australia's most deadly material.
While this is a positive and productive step, the challenges on the ground remain considerable. One of the first challenges is illegal dumping, which was brought to the fore today when a lone rogue operator was given a suspended sentence for dumping 80 tonnes of asbestos-laced material in Sydney. It was not the first time he had done so.
In another astonishing case, someone dumped a truckload of asbestos outside two child-care centres in inner Sydney.
While this act was unusually irresponsible, subtler acts of dumping asbestos in national parks or rural areas is frustratingly common. This is a major challenge for local government, which not only has to pay big money to clean up the material, but also faces pressure to protect public health and safety. Imagine finding such a dumping ground on a bushwalk with your children.
Large recyclers of construction and demolition material (the nation's largest waste stream) argue that an important part of the solution to this problem is to made the safe disposal of asbestos as cheap and convenient as possible. One way to do this would be to exempt the disposal of pure and properly wrapped asbestos from government charges at landfills.
This isn't a large enough volume to affect government income, with most landfills receiving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of assorted waste per annum, but would provide an economic pull for safe disposal. WA recently took the lead on this, but NSW, Victoria and South Australia have not.In the words of Federal Employment Minister Bill Shorten
"children who aren't even born yet will die of asbestos related disease".
Another way would be to fund a national education campaign to help DIY home improvers identify asbestos and dispose of it safely. Bill Shorten has said the new body will help run these campaigns.
Another issue is a lack of co-ordination between states and territories. Again, Shorten's new agency has promised to tackle this issue but quickly or effectively this happens is an open question. Across the nation's state and territories, the resource recovery industry faces greatly varying laws, taxes and standards that inhibit its effective operation.
For example, it's safe to assume that as you read this asbestos is being transported from NSW to Queensland, maybe even from the "sustainable" Barangaroo development, due to the difference in landfill taxes between the states. Asbestos is fine dust - it is a bad idea to transport it even a kilometre further than needed.
Finally, even within states themselves there is a lack of funding and effective management of asbestos. This was more recently highlighted in Queensland during rebuilding after the floods when a wave of complaints lead the state's Ombudsman to investigate asbestos management. His response? Management of asbestos in the state was "confused" and full of holes (pdf).
Shorten made a moving speech when introducing his recent Asbestos Safety and Eradication Bill. "We owe it to future generations to finally come to grips with the blight of asbestos in Australia," he said.
However, if the Federal Government is serious about tackling this terrible toxic legacy, it will need to properly address funding, co-ordination and disposal costs.
Alex Serpo is the editor of Inside Waste Magazine, a part of the Business Environment Network of publications.