The Tunnelling Dust Safety Taskforce had its final meeting for the year on 2 December 2025.
Taskforce members reviewed the 10-point action plan and discussed a draft report documenting summarising the actions taken to progress the action plan in 2025. A detailed discussion followed on each item of the action plan and what the focus should be in 2026. Taskforce members agreed to refreshing and refining the action plan to reflect key focus areas for next year as well as time frames and clearly defined deliverables for the completion of actions. This action plan will be developed ahead of the next Taskforce meeting and published on the SafeWork NSW website.
In other business, Dr Deborah Yates raised if there were any other areas of focus that the Taskforce could consider for improving long-term health burden relating to silica-related lung disease, such as optimal shift lengths for workers. Following discussion, the Chair asked Taskforce members to consider if there were any new and emerging areas not identified on the action plan that should form part of the revised action plan for 2026. The item was held over for further discussion until next meeting so that members could consider this matter.
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