I joined the Parliamentary Group on Asbestos-Related Disease when I became a Member, partly because of my personal experience with mesothelioma, the lung cancer that results from asbestos exposure.

My father passed away on October 26 this year from mesothelioma. He worked on the railways, in the mines and at BHP, and built our family home at Heddon Greta. We’re not exactly sure how he contracted mesothelioma, but we know it was malignant in his system and lay dormant for many years.

Heading into Christmas with my family this year, I think back to Christmas last year, when we didn’t even know dad was ill.

He was diagnosed in February, and we lost him in October. He was 87 when he died. It wasn’t a pleasant death but he was very brave and stoic.

Australia has one of the highest global rates of asbestos-related disease; in fact we are second only to the United Kingdom.

In 2014, we lost 641 Australians to this killer, taking the toll since the early 1980s to 10,000. The people we have lost are mostly men aged between 70 and 90.

They were the miners, the boiler makers, the power plant workers, the carpenters, the railway workers and the naval workers of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, when asbestos use was at its peak.

Cancer experts say we will lose another 25,000 people over the decades to come.

While the importation of asbestos is banned in Australia, there have been reports of suspected contamination of more than 50 building sites across the nation as a result of illegal asbestos imports from China.

That is why Labor pushed to establish a Senate Inquiry into the illegal importation of asbestos, enacting an election commitment to combat one of the most serious threats to occupational health and safety in Australia.

We also must make that no one is further exposed to asbestos.

We must make sure that worksites are safe and that occupational health and safety guidelines are followed.

And we must also warn home renovators – young and old – that they might be working with asbestos without even realising it. Experts warn about playing “renovation roulette”.