Hon. Kate Doust questions the Minister for Commerce regarding WA's engagement with the federal government's draft national strategic plan for asbestos awareness and management, and actions taken to reduce asbestos exposure risks. The Minister responds by outlining engagement and tabling a response letter.

AnsweredQoN 213Legislative Council
Asked
19 June 2013
Portfolio
Commerce

QuestionView source ↗

ASBESTOS —
AWARENESS AND MANAGEMENT
1. 213. Hon KATE DOUST to
the Minister for Commerce:
I refer to the federal government's draft of the
national strategic plan for asbestos awareness and management.
(1) Has the draft of this plan been considered by the state
government?
(2) Has the
state government provided a submission on the draft between its commencement
date of August 2012 and today, and —
(a) if not, why not; and
(b) if yes —
(i) what did the submission
outline; and
(ii) will the minister table that
submission?
(3) Will the
minister outline what action the Barnett government has taken since 2008 that
will reduce the risk of avoidable exposure to asbestos in this state?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the
question.
(1) There has
been engagement with the commonwealth and other jurisdictions at the
ministerial level and through the Department of Commerce.
(2) The
commonwealth government released the June 2012 ''Asbestos Management
Review Report'' in August 2012. In a letter dated 29 April 2013, I wrote
to the commonwealth Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations giving my
response to the recommendations in the report. A copy of the response is
tabled. It is important to note that the national strategic plan for asbestos
awareness and management was developed after the report was made available, and
the draft provided by the commonwealth is dated April 2013. In addition,
although not finalised, the commonwealth has scheduled the plan to commence
from 1 July 2013.
(3) The
government has continued to fund state agencies to undertake asbestos
compliance activities consistent with the requirements of the relevant
legislation.
[See paper
342.]

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