NECA condemns suppression of asbestos data

NECA has condemned the ACT Government for again refusing to release a list of Canberra homes containing potentially deadly loose-fill asbestos.

NECA ACT Executive Director Oliver Judd said that, with the closure this week of Australia’s Royal Commission into the Rudd government’s handling of the Home Insulation Program, it was incomprehensible that the ACT Government had chosen to suppress the details of the 1100 houses that had asbestos insulation with the potential for fatal or serious long-term health implications.

Electrical contractors are regularly called upon to enter ceiling spaces, under floor areas or access cavity walls where this danger exists. For an employer to send their employees into a work situation where safety cannot be guaranteed is an intolerable position.

Judd said that as the Royal Commission into the bungled Home Insulation Program finishes hearings it would be a tragedy for a second one affecting the ACT to be lining up in the distance.