Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place today to talk to an incredibly serious issue that the Turnbull government is silent about but which I will not be. This week we saw the PFAS investigation and management report released and it raises some huge concerns for the Townsville community. In Townsville, some of our drinking and recreational water has levels of PFAS that are more than 30 times the safe limit.

For any government authority, these numbers would raise alarms—but not the Turnbull government. This government has been sitting on this report since September and only decided to make the report public this week. I received a letter from the Minister for Defence, Marise Payne, on 7 November, which states:

… investigations will commence in 2017 and will take approximately 12 months to complete.

I ask: when in 2017—31 December? This is not good enough. This is my community's health at risk. The day that the government received this report, I should have had a phone call, an email—even a carrier pigeon would have done—stating these concerns and we should have started working together. I will not allow Townsville to become the next Williamtown or Oakey, where the government's lack of action has created huge and unnecessary anxiety and fear.

It is clear this government has no idea about addressing this issue. Its policy is actually a copy and paste of Labor's. I demand the following immediate action from the government: start the next round of testing, invest in resourcing Defence, communicate and consult with the community, appoint a community liaison officer, and don't add to the already existing uncertainty, stress and anxiety of these communities. (Time expired)