State buildings containing the deadly asbestos fibres should be listed and made available to the public, West Australian Upper House member and long-time campaigner Kate Doust says.
On the day asbestos materials forced almost 2000 students from Perth’s largest high school to stay home on the first week of third term, Ms Doust told Fairfax Media WA needed to follow Canada’s lead and create a publicly available register of all buildings containing asbestos.
“I don’t understand why that hasn’t been done in the past,” Ms Doust said.
Students at Willetton Senior High School were told to stay away from school on Tuesday after asbestos materials were located on the grounds prior to construction works.
Ms Doust said Willetton was part of the “next wave” of asbestos exposure and predicted the deadly fibres would be found at more state schools.
“All these schools were built around the same time. It’s all tied in to the next wave [of exposure]," she said.
Early this year Saskatchewan became the first Canadian province to make mandatory the reporting of asbestos in public buildings.
The online Saskatchewan Asbestos Register catalogues the provinces’ public buildings and details the presence of asbestos.
The register applies to health facilities, schools and government buildings or crown corporations.
“I’ve always thought it [presence of asbestos in public buildings] was something that should be made public,” Ms Doust said.
She said lists of public buildings containing asbestos were kept by each state government department.
“But that list is not being seen by each other. There’s no talk between the departments," she said.
“It’s not just the schools that we're finding asbestos, it’s the hospitals and other public buildings.”
Asbestos lawyer Laine McDonald, from Slater and Gordon, said the Department of Education owed a duty of care to its staff and students.
"If a teacher or student is negligently exposed to asbestos at a public school and is subsequently diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, it may be possible to bring a claim against the Minister for Education," she said.
"If negligently exposed to James Hardie asbestos cement products, then it may also be possible to bring a product liability claim against Hardies, as the product manufacturer and/or supplier.
"Western Australia tragically boasts one of the highest incidence rates of asbestos disease found anywhere in the world, with a lag of about 30 to 40 years between exposure and diagnosis of an illness."
In April 2013, Ms Doust put forward the Asbestos Diseases Compensation Bill 2013, which, if passed, would allow West Australians who were diagnosed with additional asbestos-related diseases the legal right to seek further damages.
Ms Doust said victims under WA law could only receive compensation once, even if they later developed further health problems.
The law would bring WA in line with similar legislation in other states.
A month later WA Attorney General Michael Mischin referred the matter to the WA Law Reform Commission.
