The president of the Asbestos Diseases Society has been named the state’s Senior of the Year in recognition of a life devoted to helping victims of asbestos-related disease.
Robert Vojakovic’s (right) tireless 32-year campaign to improve the legal rights, medical care and welfare of sufferers has touched thousands of lives.
The judges praised Mr Vojakovic, 70, for providing “essential services and support to victims of asbestos diseases and their families throughout Australia”.
“Winning the award is very emotional for me because my family has been through a lot,” Mr Vojakovic said this week. “We had intimidation and death threats for many years because our campaigns for the ADS were upsetting some powerful people… Every morning I would open the front door and look under the car for bombs.”
He was also commended for successfully lobbying the government to change the Statutory Compensation Laws, Limitation Act so that victims’ rights were not eroded with the passage of time – a vital win because asbestos-related cancers usually have a long latency period.
“It was really something special because, without that, there would be no compensation. They (sufferers) had nothing at the time. Even Centrelink didn’t recognise mesothelioma as a reason for disability.”
Born in Croatia, Mr Vojakovic landed in Sydney, aged 20, after spending years in an Austrian internment camp.
A variety of jobs across three states followed and eventually led him to Wittenoom where migrant workers were being heavily recruited by CSR to mine, refine and load asbestos.
“At the time, Wittenoom was just another town, just another mine to me,” he said.
He escaped the town and the disease, but a television program led to his involvement with the ADS.
“I was in the lounge one night and we had the television on and I saw my photo on the ABC,” he said.
His search for the photograph led him to the North Perth Migrant Resource Centre where a group of former Wittenoom workers was struggling with insurance and compensation claims.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t I just help these people for a bit?’” He was elected president a few months later.
Since then, the ADS has grown into a force to be reckoned with, uniting the support of unions, medical practitioners and parliamentarians.
Mr Vojakovic and his wife Rose Marie, also a tireless ADS worker, have learned to harness the power of the media in the fight for a better deal for victims.
“The media has been absolutely amazing,” he said. “My first media interview was on 6PR in 1982. I was absolutely terrible but it got the ball rolling… The ADS has been mentioned in more than 30,000 articles in the past 32 years.”
The ADS has more than 14,000 members but Mr and Mrs Vojakovic have closed the files on another 20,000.
“It is staggering the amount of friends who have died. We go to funerals every week. So far in 2010 we have lost 260 people,” he said.
He names his most inspirational moment as meeting renowned Perth chest physician Professor Bill Musk in the early 1980s.
“Without him, sufferers would have no hope,” he said. “Bill Musk was so committed. He was the hands-on doctor. He impressed me so much that Rose Marie and I put our hearts and souls into the ADS.”
Story by Catherine Madden