Beauty Point’s Guy Hudson was both heartened and dismayed by the crowd that gathered at Launceston Memorial Park on Friday to commemorate International Workers Memorial Day.
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Heartened that there was a place for them to remember their loved ones, and dismayed that they had to be there at all.
Fifty-one Australians have been killed in workplace accidents already this year, a figure Mr Hudson says is simply too high.
Mr Hudson, whose son Matthew died while working at Blue Ribbon Meatworks in 2004, said he hoped the increasing recognition of International Workers Memorial Day would help save lives in the workplace.
“You can only keep highlighting it with things like this to try and get people to be a bit more careful at work and I guess to think before you do things,” he said.
“The amount of people who were here today is a sad indication that deaths in industry aren’t slowing down, it’s actually getting worse so that’s not a really good thing.”
Friday’s commemorative service saw Tasmanians travel from as far as Devonport to remember lost loved ones.
“There was a good turnout today and we just need to keep pushing it out there and telling people that we need to remember our loved ones at work each day,” Mr Hudson said.
“These people are putting the food on our table and (are responsible for) our clothes and cars and our homes, and they’re probably the most important commodity there is.”
Mr Hudson is still pursuing upgrades to Launceston Memorial Park, including a new barbecue area and pathway lighting.