Media Releases

Breaking: PM wants children to perform high risk work

January 30, 2022

Breaking: PM wants children to perform high risk work

 20/01/22

Scott Morrison will today ask Premier Steven Marshall to lower the age limit on obtaining a license to perform high risk work. It’s been revealed the PM will make the request of State Premiers at today’s National Cabinet meeting in a bid to boost the number of forklift drivers to get national supply chains moving.

 

SA Unions has called the request outrageous and dangerous. It comes days after a worker in Victoria was killed by a forklift, which are broadly understood to be high risk, dangerous pieces of machinery. Fully loaded, a standard forklift can weigh around 5 tonnes and can cause serious injury even at low speed.

 

In South Australia, workers must be 18 years of age and complete training and assessments to obtain a Licence to Perform High Risk Work which allows them to operate a forklift.

 

SA Unions calls on Premier Steven Marshall to reject this outrageous and dangerous request from Scott Morrison.

 

Quotes attributed to SA Unions Secretary, Dale Beasley:

 

“This will be a true test for Steven Marshall – he must stand up for South Aussies and reject the PM’s demand.”

 

“Once again Scott Morrison is showing he is prepared to place working people at heightened risk of injury and death in order to fix the problems that have been caused by his lit-it-rip approach to managing the pandemic.

 

“Children should not be performing high risk work with such heavy machinery. It’s an absurd demand.

 

“Forklifts are dangerous pieces of heavy machinery and are often a cause of workplace injury and death. The Prime Minister’s proposal that children should be allowed to operate them harks back to the days of kids working in coal mines – it’s absurd.

 

“This shows just how out of touch the PM is with how hazardous and risky workplaces can be. He might put on a high-vis vest and a hard hat from time to time, but he has no idea of the high level of skill it takes to be a worker in our supply chains.

 

All media enquiries to:

Dale Beasley

Secretary, SA Unions

170 Greenhill Rd Parkside 5063

Tel: 08 8279 2222

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