Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My heart goes out to people in electorates where homes have been contaminated by firefighting chemicals. The information coming out, including from the member for Paterson, is frightening—the impacts on health, the impacts on livelihoods, the impacts on land values. There are concerns in my own electorate of Macquarie, where we have the Richmond RAAF Base, a much loved institution. That is one lot of aeroplanes we really like to see! Richmond RAAF Base sits on a river and there is a town at either end—Richmond and Windsor. We do not know what contamination has occurred on this site. There simply are not any answers.

In the overdue testing that was done by the government, only two of the 11 bores that were meant to be tested were tested. On that basis, we are told there are some positive results, that drinking water is not contaminated. But that really is not enough testing for us to have any idea about what the impacts are. We are in the dark at Richmond. It leaves uncertainty for the people around Richmond RAAF Base. The communities are going to be suffering stress for another year until we find out more detail. This is not good enough. Testing needs to be speeded up. Communities need to know now what impact this chemical may have on their lives.