Dear o sung wu,

I absolutely admire your sense of fair play.
And your reasoning on this issue. Trying to
make this into political scoring is simply
cheap and nasty and as always not worthy
of being indulged.

osw,

There are multiple facets to this NBN stuff up, and the fact that NBN Co and Telstra knew about it.

Firstly, there are set guidelines for how to deal with asbestos, and large companies are equipped to do so. However, it is slow and expensive. NBN Co in negotiation to build the network rejected the bids of the larger experienced companies, and went with smaller companies that subcontracted a flotilla of tiny subcontractors that were in no way equipped to deal with asbestos. As with the Pink Batts debacle, the outcome was predictable and inevitable.

Secondly the ridiculous claims by NBN co on costs and schedule are already way off, and proper dealing with the asbestos in the 8m pits will vastly increase costs and time blow outs, with most not receiving any service until well past 2020.

The promise by Labor that NBN Co would yield a small profit is laughable.

Asbestos, no probs. Vote LNP and it'll go away, just like asylum seekers.

O sung, to put your mind at rest, asbestos is perfectly safe in all it's forms, but dust.

With the molded telecom boxes, with not only a smooth surface, but damp as well, there is no chance of dust if used as intended.

Start cutting, grinding or sanding them, & you could start to get trouble. Not much really while wet/damp, but if dry, the dust will fly, & inhaling that is where the problems lie.

In all those old fibro houses, with the stuff painted, it was totally safe. You could even sand the paint, & repaint safely. However, strip the paint & start sanding or grinding the fibro itself, & you were in trouble.

Some of it was used for roofs. There, unpainted it could deteriorate in the sun, & give off dust, & drinking water gathered from such a roof had dangers, once it had become dusty.

Do you remember the old fibro cutters. They acted as a wedge, pushing a bit of the material out, with no dust generated. This was safe, & I am perhaps enough of a conspiracy theorists to believe they were cynically developed to avoid dust generation, with out warning the population of the dangers.

However this present ruckus is politically inspired to help no one, as the material is quite safe, if not hacked about, or removed from the ground. Of course it could offer very big bucks to the asbestos removal industry, so perhaps the ruckus is generated by them.

G'day HASBEEN...

So in theory, provided anything that was mfg'd from asbestos was not reduced to an unscreened, micro-pulverised particle, by any process that might include grinding, cutting, or shaving etc., it would remain relatively innocuous ?

Do you think it might prove necessary, sometime in the future perhaps, to interrupt this dormant asbestos in the process of installing this new NBN cabling ? What I'm asking I suppose, might it still prove necessary to modify some of these old asbestos 'housings', to install this new NBN cabling ? You'll need to pardon my inane questions, I don't have either yours or BELLY'S grasp, on these technical matters HASBEEN ?

Somehow, notwithstanding anybody's (personal) political affinities. I just can't believe anyone would wish to take the the risk of imperilling the health and safety of any worker, by knowingly exposing them to the hazards of working amongst unstable asbestos material.

On the political front, I'm not sure if any blame for all this kerfuffle should be apportioned to anyone ? To me, as HASBEEN has described for us all; Provided this asbestos material is left untouched, and remains untouched in situ, we really don't have a problem. The problem only arises if it's found necessary to remove the stuff, in order that the NBN cabling can be safely undertaken.

Then the asbestos MUST only be removed by those contractors that have had the necessary training and experience. Somehow, I really can't see any evidence of political opportunism, even that old chestnut, 'Machiavellianism' !

Thanks again LEXI, for your kind words. Sadly, it's not because of any sage wisdom I might have ? No, it's more of a case, that I'm just really 'thick' both intellectually, and pragmatically. Though, I do occasionally covet an image of myself, as being rather a pragmatist ?

O sung, what I was getting at is that I believe the problem is being exaggerated beyond all reason for political reasons, or for financial reasons, by perhaps workers looking for compensation, or contractors who can see a big dollar in it. I am not close enough to have any real idea on that, other to see a mole hill becoming a mountain.

As for feeding fiber cable through them, to replace copper, a fools errand in my opinion, however it should offer no real health problems. To be sure breathing gear should be offered to those who feel a need for it.