TRANSCRIPT, 2
9 May 2015
Mark McCabe, ACT Work Safety Commissioner
Pilot Demolition and Safety
Our view is it can absolutely be done safely. We don’t have any doubt that it can be but we will be making sure it is done safely - it will be our number one priority. The day of the demolition will, in many ways, look similar to a normal demolition with a couple of important differences.
I guess the main thing is the work that will be done before that day. Virtually all of the material, all of the asbestos andcontaminated material will be gone before the day of the demolition.
The last bit will be knocking over the house which any remaining fibres will besprayed and sealed to the remaining building material so that the risk on that final day is infinitessantly small but nonetheless there will be peopleon hand to make sure that it goes on safely and that if anything is detected it will stop and that material will be dealt with. So we’re leaving no stone unturned to make sure this is done safely.
So the first step is a planning stage where we ask for OK what is the plan for how you’re going to do this, have you looked at the house on where its situated on the site, what’s the potential impact of the demolition on neighbouring houses, what other things are there onsite that need to be dealt with, how will traffic management be dealt with etcetera.
From that stage it then moves to the removal stage so there will be a process put in place to remove all the asbestos in a controlled environment. WorkSafe once again will be scrutinising that plan and coming out and making sure thatthat is being done safely. Once that’s done the removal of the asbestos is signed off by a licensed asbestos assessor- that then enables the demolition to go ahead. We will have sighted the demolition plan and raised any concerns we have about that, if we have any.
The day of the demolition WorkSafe will come out onsite, make sure it’s being done appropriately. The house will be knocked over with a number of experts onsite to make sure that if anything arises they are dealt with. The material will then be taken away and disposed of and the site will be cleared and pretty much from WorkSafe’s point of view that’s the end of the process.
I guess the most important thing I would say is I want the community to understandthat there’s an assurance from WorkSafe that – one we will not let the work go ahead unless we are assured that thepeople doing it are competent and capable of doing it and two, if it looks like it’s not being done properly we will stop it.