Howard: safety underminer!

John Howard wants the states to change occupational health and safety requirements so responsibility for mine accidents are not focused solely on mine managers, as he says is presently the case in some jurisdictions.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) president Tony Maher says Mr Howard's claim that mine managers are solely responsible for accidents is false, and that any changes would lower safety standards.

"What Howard says in his letter is wholly false," Mr Maher said.

"The legal liability does not solely rest on mine managers.

"The legal liability is placed on all employees, and employers in the industry.

"That's proven by the fact that companies are prosecuted, managers are prosecuted, those lower in management ranks have been prosecuted, and ordinary rank and file mine workers have been prosecuted.

"It's all well and good to put your arms around the Beaconsfield survivors, and shed crocodile tears about mine safety.

"But the laws that we have around the country have been built on the backs of the deaths of over 4,000 Australians.

"There'll be lower standards if they are changed. Basically he'll have blood on his hands. More people will die. More people will be injured."

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