JUST a few years ago, Canberra was the least-safe jurisdiction in Australia. More than 50 people were seriously injured each week.

After a series of catastrophic and fatal workplace accidents, the Getting Home Safely inquiry was established to try to stop the workplace carnage.

That independent inquiry found that: “Government procurement practices do not emphasise work health and safety as prominently as they should.”

It exposed a private sector that “disregards work health and safety” and “has a sense of inevitability about the occurrence of serious injuries”.

Every worker has the right to go to work and get home safely at the end of the day. The appalling injuries and tragic workplace deaths were preventable and working to prevent them is what union organisers do every day.

The Getting Home Safely inquiry recommended that the ACT government “use its purchasing power to ensure through its tendering process that only contractors with good health and safety records and the capacity to complete a project as safely as possible are allocated government work.”

It stated that “unions have an important role to play” in ensuring safe workplaces through advising and informing government of what was really happening on the ground.

Unions worked closely with the ACT government, WorkSafe and business groups at the time to improve safety processes and procedures involved with procurement. This has ensured that ACT ratepayers’ money is awarded to reputable companies with a strong track record in safety. That’s why UnionsACT has a memorandum of understanding on procurement with the ACT government.

Sadly, some conservative commentators and business lobby groups have spent the past 12 months making noise that safety concerns are a “myth”.

Last month “CityNews” columnist Michael Moore wrote an article that is a worrying example of the callous disregard for safety and rights at work that we tackled just a few years ago. It is to his deep discredit that he makes light of the important safety protections contained in the MOU. Even more concerning is that he wrote an opinion piece filled with unfounded and party-political attacks on safety culture.

No true Canberran would seek to play politics with the real and continuing safety risks in Canberra’s workplaces and Mr Moore should reflect on the damage his comments do towards building a culture of safety.

Canberra today is a great place to work, with high wages, secure jobs and (mostly) safe workplaces. Employees of ACT government contractors know they will get paid on time, that they have secure employment and that they will get home safely helped by the memorandum of understanding that UnionsACT has with the government.

It is disappointing that Mr Moore, Canberra Liberal leader Jeremy Hanson or Master Builders’ boss Kirk Conningham (whose members injure 42 Canberran construction workers each month in the ACT) have sought to score political points on this issue.

Safety at work, the principle that everyone who goes to work should get home safely, is our core priority. We are proud that the MOU we have has helped so many tens of thousands of employees working for ACT government contractors.

Alex White is secretary of UnionsACT, representing 48,800 union members and supporters in the Canberra region.