Thursday, 24 March 2022

Jack Brownlee and Charlie Howkins

Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood) (10:36): I rise today to commemorate the fourth anniversary this week of the tragic Delacombe trench collapse. On 21 March 2018 Charlie Howkins and Jack Brownlee went to work and never came home. The trench that they were working in on a worksite at Delacombe collapsed, tragically killing them both.

I want to pay my deepest respects and sympathies to Dave and Janine Brownlee and Lana Cormie, whose lives changed forever that day. I want to acknowledge their tireless and brave advocacy in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and to this day. They have displayed enormous generosity and bravery, sharing their story and grief to make workplaces safer in Victoria. Together with the union movement they advocated passionately for workplace manslaughter laws, which this government was proud to pass in 2019.

At the foundation of our occupational health and safety framework is the notion that no matter who you are or what you do for work, you deserve to be safe; you should come home from work safely each and every day. I must say I was extremely saddened to see in the last week that rubbish had been callously dumped at the memorial that has been dedicated to Charlie and Jack. Today we remember Charlie and Jack and the tireless advocacy of their families, and we commit to doing everything we can to make our workplaces safer.