A MOTHER, whose son was killed while working as a concreter, said her “heart aches” for the families of the three men fatally injured at Border and North East mills.
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Kay Catanzariti has successfully fought for a Senate inquiry into industrial deaths in Australia which will examine how such incidents are handled by authorities.
Her son Ben, 21, died when he was hit by a falling concrete boom on a Canberra building site in 2012.
The trauma of workplace deaths has been felt on the Border and North East in the past month with the deaths of two Norske Skog paper mill workers and a Benalla sawmill labourer.
Mrs Catanzariti said sadly the men’s families would face a complex process as their deaths were probed.
“My heart aches for them and the journey they’re going to travel,” she said.
“You’re thrown into a complete legal minefield, you’re in shock from losing your son, husband and partner and there’s timeframes put on everything.
“There’s timeframes for investigations, timeframes to put in claims for workers’ compensation – all that kind of thing – and the families they have just lost their loved one, they’re grieving.”
The Griffith local, whose other son Jack is doing a teaching degree in Albury, said she had been determined to have a Senate inquiry to help those hurting and look at better responses and preventative measures.
She encouraged relatives or friends of the three mill workers to submit their experiences to the inquiry, saying even though an official deadline had passed they would still be allowed.
“Put their submissions in and ask how have they been treated, have they been kept up to date with what’s happening?” Mrs Catanzariti said.
“I want communication opened up, WorkSafe need to communicate with affected families, that’s one of the key factors, and I believe every fatality should be treated as a crime scene.
“Those families need counselling and if it’s not classified as a crime scene families are not entitled to counselling.
“There must be a full investigation and an inquest.
“A friend of mine now, her husband was caught in an auger and there was no autopsy or inquest.”
Mrs Catanzariti stressed: “Our loved ones are not collateral damage.
“They didn’t go to war, they went to work.
“They’re not a number.”
