Calls for support as Latrobe Valley power workers continue to die from asbestos exposure

Australia Broadcast Center

6 days ago

Like many men of his generation, Mick Tomkins does not like to make a fuss.
The 73-year-old enjoys meeting up with a group of mates to swim at the nearby Traralgon pool most mornings, before a coffee and a chat about the footy.
But, like many men of his generation, Mr Tomkins is also living with the insidious legacy of being a power station worker in the 1970s, after being diagnosed with terminal mesothelioma last year.
"It was a bit of a shock," he said.
Mr Tomkins was just 20 years old when he first took on a role as a subcontractor, helping build the new W station at Yallourn.
For the young sheet metal worker, it was the prospect of high-paying work that would support his family.
"That construction was an area I really didn't want to go into, but I had a wife and a couple of kids, so I had to get work and they paid very well out there," he said.
The power industry was booming, with Mr Tomkins joining around 1,000 other contractors onsite at the time.
What workers did not realise was that their job exposed them to asbestos on a daily basis.
"The laggers would go in and put the insulation on the pipes, and we would come in and coat them with sheet metal," he said.
"Most of that insulation was fibreglass, but then we had sectional asbestos over the pipes.
It would not be until 50 years later that Mr Tomkins and his family would discover the damage caused by this exposure.
In 2003, after a series of court cases, asbestos was banned in Australia.
More than a decade ago, Mr Tomkins and his family started to monitor his condition by getting regular lung compression testing.
Then, about three years ago, Mr Tomkins said he started to develop a cough that would not go away.
He would soon not be able to walk to the front gate.
A CT scan and a biopsy would later confirm Mr Tomkins had mesothelioma.
For the stoic father and grandfather, the news, while devastating, was not unexpected.
"I didn't panic. In some ways, in the end, I'd sort of half expected it because of the cough," he said.
For Pauline Tomkins, Mr Tomkins' wife of 54 years, and their family, it was confirmation of the worst kind.
"We just all went quiet, and I just kept looking at the floor," she said.
"It was always in the back of my mind, but the trouble is when it is said to you."
A 2009 study by Monash University found that former power workers in the Latrobe Valley were contracting mesothelioma at a rate seven times the national average.
The proliferation of asbestos among Latrobe Valley workers prompted an apology from the then Victorian premier John Brumby at a regional sitting of the 56th parliament at Monash University's Gippsland Campus on October 15, 2008.
"On behalf of the Victorian government and the community, I want to say sorry and to express our regret for the pain and the suffering felt by some former power industry workers and their families where that was caused by asbestos exposure at the former SECV … It is unacceptable that any person, through the course of their work, is exposed to what we now know is a deadly substance," Mr Brumby said.
For Vicki Hamilton, the CEO and secretary of the Asbestos Council of Victoria (better known as GARDS), the ongoing legacy of illness for the Latrobe Valley hits close to home.
Ms Hamilton lost both her father and grandfather to asbestos-related disease, and said despite the high profile nature of asbestos cases, many people mistakenly believed the challenges were behind them.
"I get a couple of calls a month at least from people who know that they're sick and they are going to see a doctor," she said.
Ms Hamilton said 140,000 workers were exposed to asbestos between the 1920s and the 1980s.
"That affected a whole community, and every person, every second or third person in the Latrobe Valley knows somebody who has an asbestos-related disease," she said.
The Asbestos Council formed part of a state government task force established in 2019 to review how asbestos was managed in the Latrobe Valley.
In 2022, the task force made 21 recommendations to minimise the risk and harms of asbestos exposure.
The recommendations included establishing a statewide centre to manage all asbestos queries, developing targeted awareness campaigns, and mandating training for the handling and removal of asbestos.
However, no recommendations had been implemented when the work of the task force culminated in March 2023.
Ms Hamilton said more needed to be done as workers continued to come forward with diagnoses.
"I'm very lucky, the state government just helped to fund me for part of my money because, without that, we would have been looking at closing within 12 months because that's about the only money we have left."
A Victorian government spokesperson said the government was working to prevent or minimise risks associated with asbestos.
"Actions underway to address the harmful legacy of asbestos and prevent asbestos-related diseases in Victoria include raising awareness of asbestos risks, prioritising and coordinating the removal of asbestos from Victorian government buildings, establishing convenient disposal points and strengthening compliance and enforcement," the spokesperson said.
With legal help, Mr Tomkins was able to make a claim for compensation against his former employer's insurance company.
Now, he and his family are taking each day as it comes.
Mr Tomkins is balancing his life with treatment, and so far has found success with immunotherapy to keep his cancer under control.
"We just take each day now as we go and just do what the doctors say," Mr Tomkins said.
"I don't look like I'm dying, do I?
"I've had a life, but you know I'd like to still have a longer life actually."