Onus on Telstra for asbestos work: govt The government says Telstra made promises in its asbestos remediation work that weren't always kept. TELSTRA has taken responsibility for asbestos remediation works on telecom pits and ducts, after a series of scares over the deadly substance led the federal government to seek reassurances. The telecommunications giant was accused of cutting corners before handing over the work sites to the national broadband network builder NBN Co, after contractors and communities raised fears they had been exposed to asbestos. Following a meeting of federal, company and union representatives in Canberra on Monday, workplace minister Bill Shorten said a national taskforce would be set up to monitor exposure prevention and the training and supervision of contractors working on the NBN rollout. The independent taskforce will include senior Telstra representatives and officials from commonwealth regulators. State regulators will also be invited to take part. Mr Shorten said Telstra chief David Thodey had expressed disappointment and accepted the company had "ultimate responsibility" for the way it handled the remediation works. "People in streets, in the suburbs in Australia, are feeling an anxiety which they shouldn't have to feel," Mr Shorten said. The training standards which were promised have not been delivered in all cases; the protocols which were promised around safety do not appear to have been honoured in all cases. Promises that have been made have not been kept. But Mr Thodey strongly rejected suggestions the company had been cutting corners. He said six pits in Penrith, in Sydney's west, had been cleared, with 14 more to go. Telstra had literally "hundreds of thousands of pits to remediate" for the NBN project, he added. Asbestos was found last week at a Telstra pit in Penrith in Sydney, and further discoveries were made at telecommunications works in Ballarat, Perth, Adelaide and Tasmania. On Monday the Queensland government said asbestos had been discovered at three NBN work sites, which might necessitate a full-scale sweep of NBN sites across the state. Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie warned a class action could be launched against NBN Co or the commonwealth and said Mr Shorten had to take responsibility for the workplace safety breaches. "This is an absolute botched debacle again by a federal government," Mr Bleijie said. We saw it with the home insulation debacle we had a few years ago. Asked where Telstra's responsibilities ended and NBN Co's began, communications minister Stephen Conroy said it was when Telstra, which was contracted to remediate the pits and ducts, handed them over to NBN Co. "NBN Co have not sought to dodge responsibility," he said. They take asbestos issues very seriously. Telstra earlier on Monday told the Australian stock exchange it believed it did not face financial risks from people potentially exposed to asbestos. The government has set up a register for people to lodge claims about possible exposure. "Anyone who has any concerns about being exposed to asbestos, ring us now," Mr Thodey told reporters. Of the 30 asbestos-related issues in telecommunications pits incidents recorded since 1996, two-thirds had occurred since January and almost half had occurred in the last six or so weeks. New laws passed the lower house of federal parliament on Monday to set up an independent body - the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency - to eliminate asbestos-related diseases. Australia would become the first nation to take such action against asbestos diseases, which are forecast to kill more than 700 people in Australia this year.