STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator SHELDON (New South Wales—Chief Government Whip in the Senate) (13:44): Cleanaway has become one of Australia's worst offenders when it comes to workplace safety. In the past two years alone, five people have lost their lives while working there—and a total of eight since 2022. Now a working mother of seven and a grandmother has been left with permanent vision loss, due to Cleanaway's disregard for safety.

Hine Murphy, a hardworking truck driver, was carrying out her shift when concentrated methanol poured from a hospital waste bin over her. She contacted management to seek urgent safety advice. Crickets—no response.

In the coming weeks she was hospitalised, before finding out she would have permanent vision loss. Weeks later, when the Transport Workers' Union tried to inspect the site, Cleanaway refused entry. Comcare, the national safety regulator, had to intervene.

They intervened, and Cleanaway didn't report the incident or take any steps to stop it happening again. Despite all this, Cleanaway's CEO, Mark Schubert, took home over $4.2 million, and Cleanaway still made $109 million in profit in the first half of this financial year. But no amount of profits can wash away the blood from Cleanaway's hands.

I want to acknowledge Hine Murphy and her family and thank them for coming in today, because listening to her speak earlier today was heartbreaking and something that I don't think anyone here will forget. She said: I should never be in this situation just because of my job. The two outcomes of methanol are death and blindness—I'm lucky I got the latter.

No worker should have to be thankful they were lucky to be blinded instead of being killed. Before Cleanaway manages Australia's waste, it needs to clean up its own mess and sack the CEO. It's time for a clean-out at Cleanaway.