Coroner and PM respond to Pink Batt deaths
A Queensland coroner has found more could have been done to save the lives of four young tradesmen, the Prime Minister says he would be willing to meet their families.
Coroner Michael Barnes handed down his findings late last week, saying four men who were killed installing Federal Government-funded insulation upgrades should have received more adequate training. The roll-out of pink insulation batts had been intended as a stimulus measure for a languishing industry, the three separate deaths (in 2009 and 2010) of young men employed to install them ended the program.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been criticised for not doing more to educate or protect workers installing the batts, the three men were electrocuted while using conductive nails on the easily electrically-charged material.
In his findings, the coroner attacked the lack of planning and mitigation, saying "Undoubtedly, a major contributor to the failure to put in place adequate safeguards was the speed with which the program was conceived, designed and implemented... the detailed analysis and planning that would usually be involved in such a venture was curtailed.”
After the damning report into the Government's ineptitude on the program, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has said he would meet with the families of the deceased in private if they wished, and that all families have a range of compensation options available to them.
The Opposition says he owes more than an apology, and should release all of the confidential correspondence he received warning of the dangers, former Trade Minister Craig Emerson has warned the Opposition against trying to gain political mileage from the deaths.