Moore said he would ask the company to explain just what it is doing to “remedy the situation”.“Even one fatality is too many, but this is becoming of great concern,” he said. On Thursday a 45-year-old man was killed at a construction site at Newman. The worker was a scaffolder employed by contractor John Holland.The shadow minister for mines and petroleum, Jon Ford, today said an inquiry was needed into the deaths at BHP Billiton mines, and safety standards in the WA mining industry should be overhauled in light of the deaths. Ford’s office also emailed media an image of a truck which had almost run off a road, saying the picture was a “near-miss” from BHP’s Mount Whaleback operations in the Pilbara.The Australian Workers Union has also raised its concerns over the death, saying BHP’s mines should be shut down while a full safety audit is run on its operations. Additionally, the union claimed many workers are too fearful to speak up over safety concerns in the current climate of job losses.In a statement today Moore also said his office was fully behind an independent engineering study into the safety systems at every BHP iron ore site launched late last year by the WA state mining engineer. The review is due by April 30.
