Peter Hume wrote:
"The government's job is to remove all risk whatsoever. Since getting out of bed involves risk, I expect the government to bring me breakfast in bed every morning. After all, it's only my basic human right, properly understood."

Hehehe! Well said Peter. It's all that needs to be said :)

Sorry but I need to divert the thread.
Look at the other thread on this subject.
See the taunting and note I Have been followed here, taunts and all.
Unions? the answer to every question can not be both yes and no.
Post work choices IR laws do not give unions power to change anything in this area.
Comparing contractors to telstra ones is, come surely madness?
Those who installed satellite TV so many more had very substandard training if any.
Anti woman haunts me with references to a union I want nothing to do with, blame for much of the movements bad press.
Rechtub? you have found a friend but not me.
IDIOTIC fellow your comments overlooked it was a road construction site 4 inches of greasy mud, steep batters ,footpath on top inch's away, cars parked 100,s of meters away.
Law NOT UNIONS COMPEL BOSSES to provide those things.
rechtub, it was my intention to HIGHLIGHT work cover, the very group who should have overseen the training, the installation process, but only got involved after deaths, under ANY government is useless.
You, TAPP, antiseptic show ignorance and bias in your posts.
Straws anything to get at Labor, fact remains truth has value and Australia needs more workplace safety not sitting in cars in the rain because red necks think lunch rooms are not manly.

I am truly reluctant to engage in verbal tennis with TAPP.
He has however strolled on to the court, table tennis bat in hand and confronted me.
Take note, he blames the member he confronted at the last federal election, in his every post.
The man he confronts beat him in that election.
Has zero to do with this matter.
Defense is his portfolio.
See Tapps insult to foxy, unable to take return serves he often does that.
Room exists to be very critical of workplace safety, state/federal governments every one of them, fail us all, both sides.
But if I as a unionist complain about safety, mud and no sheds, red necks scream insults.
Up the thread it is said deaths included kids and heat stroke pink bats not this new one.
BELIEVE me cash drove bosses to use kids untrained people in dangerous places.
under stand,,,, no risk is involved in new installations.
crawling around roofs that may have had poorly installed or even altered wires is dangerous.
TAPP get well bloke I truly hope you can.
Remember this, it may help, a good man does not hate because he is hated, I dislike your actions but truly wish you well, return to reality bloke.

Belly:"Comparing contractors to telstra ones is, come surely madness?"

Not at all, since the work environment is identical. OTOH, Telstra and Optus, for all their faults, insisted on stringent safety protocols, informed by their experience over many years. Telstra is a highly unionised workforce, while Optus is not.

Those who installed satellite TV were given the same training as any other staff of those telcos and it paid off with a very safe outcome, aided by stringent policing of installers' field procedures by the telco supervisors. Any incident resulted in a full safety analysis.

Belly:"anti woman"

Oh dear. Feeling under pressure Belly? Time to pull out the old dog-whistle eh? No wonder the CFMEU in WA can barely get enough members to hold a game of euchre. Never mind belly, you've got a "job for life"...

The fact remains that the unions had and have the ear of the Government but they did nothing. I wonder if that might have been because they were determined to show up that upstart Garrett? After all, there were "good unionists" who could have been parachuted into Kingsford-Smith and it's not as if any of those likely to get killed would be unionists...

Dear Cornflower,

Kindly re-read my posts.

It appears that your premise is that all problems
stem from the government - and we have no responsiblity
for our own actions.

Whereas in my view a business that employs staff is
responsible for the safety of the staff (work place
safety). All the authorities do is set the standards and
regulations under which the employer should function.

As far as the roof insulation is concerned - it is the
responsibility of the contractor or his supervisor
to insure that it is a safe working environment for
his staff. We have been seeing on TV advertisements
for work place safety - and in those adds its crystal
clear that it's the employer who is responsible and not
the government.

Examinator,

One or two comparable incidents would be fine. (please not a litany of bureaucratic bungling as that is not comparable.)

Foxy,

I'm not talking of questionable decisions about foreign policy with 20/20 hindsight (and often bipartisan support), I am talking about bad / deadly decisions made with full foresight.

Labor's accusation of Vaile for the AWB scandal was baseless. If Vaile had meetings with the AG or anyone on the issue and overrode them then maybe it was comparable. A handful of correspondences to his office amongst thousands indicating queries that is filtered through several layers of underlings only indicates that if his office acted on every correspondence then he might have had some inkling.

Inuendo does not count.

Both of you are so fixated that Labor can do no wrong that you are blind to its faults.