Risk Communications Guidelines and Communicating Asbestos Facts and Figures

Files

This consultation has now closed.

What’s this consultation about?

We are consulting on the new Guidelines for communicating about asbestos risk which have been developed by the Agency in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders.   

Also for consultation is the Communicating Asbestos Facts and Figures guide which is to be read and used in conjunction with the guidelines.

These guidelines are for anyone who has responsibility for communicating about asbestos risk with the public. This includes:

  • federal, state, territory and local government bodies involved in the development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of asbestos-related laws (e.g. work health and safety, environment protection, public health, emergency response)
  • government and non-government organisations who need to respond to asbestos exposure events
  • unions and worker representatives, and employer representatives
  • asbestos professionals, specialist advisers and training organisations
  • asbestos-related disease advocacy and support groups
  • medical and health professionals.

 

The guidelines include principles for producing clear, consistent and complementary communication messages. They can also be used to establish effective processes for community engagement in both the workplace and non-workplace context.

The guidelines cover both communicating to prevent asbestos exposure and communicating in response to asbestos exposure. These can involve different communication channels, processes and messages. It is important that preventive and responsive communications are considered in tandem, as they affect each other and do not operate alone.

These guidelines are a ‘how to’ for developing effective messages and processes for communicating asbestos risk, in both preventative and responsive situations. To aid the development of effective messages, we have provided a companion document – Communicating Asbestos Facts and Figures  

This Communicating Asbestos Facts and Figures guide contains statements that are based on established scientific facts; asbestos safety research; researched message testing; and legally accepted authoritative information on the Australian history of asbestos mining, manufacture and use.

Relevant documents

How to have your say

This consultation commenced on Monday 28 February and will run for six weeks closing on Friday 8 April.

We look forward to your engagement on this important document and encourage you to make a submission. You can ask questions about the consultation by sending an email to engage@asbestossafety.gov.au

Your submission

Please forward your submission to engage@asbestossafety.gov.au

Please note that ASEA may publish submissions on its website unless you request confidentiality. Our privacy policy can be accessed here.

Outcome of consultation

Thank you to all those who provided submissions and contributed to the development of these guides. The Guides have now been published and are available here.