Mother addresses media outside ACT Magistrates Court after son crushed at work

Jacqueline Sweeting speaks after Metal Manufactures Pty Ltd was fined $375,000 for work health and safety failure.

Transcript

00:00The WorkSafe ACT Commissioner is happy, so I'm content with that.

00:08I was very pleased to hear the Magistrate's words.

00:12He understood all of the issues and the sentence, to my understanding, appears to be moderate

00:23to high and WorkSafe ACT are happy with that.

00:27So, therefore, I'm content with that.

00:31Was it like hearing the Magistrate say just how easily the risks could have been mitigated

00:36and just how easily the accident could have been avoided?

00:40Yeah, well, the Magistrate said on the 28th of June that the risk was known, but nothing

00:47was done about it, so that's well accepted.

00:51So clearly, as a parent whose son was so severely injured, that's frustrating, but it's terrific

01:04to hear the accountability and the acknowledgement that workplace health and safety still has

01:12a long way to go with all Australians.

01:15How's Jesse going now?

01:17He's getting on with life.

01:19He has the benefit of youth.

01:21He's 23 years of age.

01:22That's all we can ever do from an incident like this is move forward.

01:28Jesse's accident was January 2022 and that year there were 195 Australians killed in

01:36workplace injuries.

01:40We are forever mindful of these people and their families and the statistics remain appalling

01:46and most Australians may be surprised by these figures, but we just cannot allow complacency

01:53or apathy to creep into work health, place and safety.

01:57Every Australian deserves a healthy and safe workplace.

02:01If there's another benefit to this court process, it's that the media raises awareness of work

02:08health and safety and puts it on the table where it belongs.

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