Closed Coroner’s Inquiries Opened

A grieving widow's unanswered questions and a union campaign have moved to increase transparency over workplace fatalities.

Pressure from Tasmanian workers and their families has seen the government move to ensure mandatory public inquests are held into workplace deaths.

The move follows the closed inquiry held into the death of Ray Bonney at the Hercules mine on Tasmania's west coast in June 1999.

Bonney's family called for an open inquiry to resolve questions raised after the coroner handed down a record of investigation in 2002. That investigation found that Bonney had been instrumental in his own death.

Ray Bonney's widow Caroline told Tasmanian media that the closed inquiry, which did not interview any of Bonney's workmates, raised more questions than it answered.

"Five years is too long without any answers," says Caroline Bonney. "I still feel that we don't know what happened that day or why Ray is dead."

Australian First

The Tasmanian Attorney-General Judy Jackson has confirmed that, in an Australian first, the Tasmanian Government will introduce an amendment to the Coroners Act to ensure that workplace deaths are the subjects of Coronial Inquests.

The Tasmanian Branch of the AWU has welcomed the move after conducting a long campaign for a more transparent system.

"The message to employers is clear," says Tasmanian AWU secretary Ian Wakefield. "If a fatality occurs in their workplace they will need to demonstrate that they have provided a safe and responsible workplace.

"The AWU believes the capacity to test evidence being considered by the Coroner is fundamental to natural justice.

"Unfortunately at this stage this matter hasn't helped the Bonney family.

"Discussions are ongoing with the Attorney Generals Department in relation to that inquest."

© 2002 UNIONSAFE
This site is sponsored by the Workcover Authority of NSW for Labor Council of NSW

Site designed and engineered by Social Change Online [credits]
This page: http://unionsafe.net.au/news/110930216823001.html
Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:33 EST