Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here in Australia, the weather is never far from our minds, whether you're preparing for a cyclone in Darwin, cleaning up after a flash flood in the centre of Newcastle or battling a bushfire caused by a lightning strike. In this arid land, rain can be a blessed sight. Many parts of our country celebrated rain last week. We celebrated when it came tumbling down, especially in my electorate of Paterson, ending what had been for many the driest season in decades.

However, in the red zone of Williamtown and surrounds, the rain wasn't celebrated. In fact, it was a very sad thing. It's a sad thing when there is no joy when the tanks run over and when the children can't splash in puddles. For, in much of Williamtown, Salt Ash and Fullerton Cove, children can't splash in puddles. In fact, their parents, families and carers have been advised that they should have absolutely no incidental contact with that water whatsoever. Those people can't eat their own homegrown vegetables. Their water is contaminated and cannot be used. The creeks and drains are known collectors of the dreaded PFAS chemicals that have leeched from RAAF Base Williamtown.

I rise here today after being granted a speaking opportunity in what is called the grievance debate. It couldn't be more aptly named. Yes, I have a grievance. Those who own the 650 properties affected by PFAS contamination that has leeched from the RAAF Base Williamtown have a grievance. The individuals and families who've made their homes on this now contaminated land, which is no longer fit for rural and often agricultural purposes, have a grievance. How long must we wait for the Department of Defence and for this federal government to fix this mess? It seems that every hope is thwarted, and every deadline is stretched. Every opportunity to extract assistance is like getting blood from the proverbial stone. Every long-awaited answer or solution fails to be delivered.

It is now 27 March 2018, and we are 27 days past the original deadline for what, yet again, my constituents and I hoped, might be a watershed moment. That moment was the release of the expert health panel for PFAS advice to the Australian government on the potential health impacts of PFAS exposure. The people trapped in the red zone are damaged, and they're very dismayed. They suffered massive economic losses from the moment the red zone was declared and their properties fell within that line. They've suffered psychologically, as investigations by our local newspaper led to reports of a 50-person-plus cancer cluster along a five-kilometre stretch of rural road in the heart of the red zone. They've been given conflicting advice on water and land use. They've been given, apparently, contradictory advice on the use of their primary produce. They've been through a treadmill of maps and models and boundary changes, not to mention endless meetings and briefings. They're sick of waiting. They're sick of asking. They're sick of pleading with this government for help, and they're sick of asking this government to clean up the mess. Yes, they have a grievance.

They have a deep grievance with Prime Minister Turnbull. They have a grievance with Defence Minister Payne. They have a grievance with the head of the PFAS taskforce, Senator James McGrath, and now they have a grievance with the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt. We were assured that the expert panel for PFAS would provide its advice to Minister Hunt by the end of February. That deadline came and went, and it was quietly extended via a change to a website. On 16 March, the expert panel for PFAS website was updated. It now states that the honourable minister, Mr Hunt, will receive the panel's advice in March 2018. Well, guess what. Time's almost up again. We are sick of waiting. These people have done absolutely nothing to deserve this, apart from buy rural properties in a perfectly good part of the world that is now not perfectly good for purpose. Earlier this year, this government thumbed its nose at a deadline set out in a Senate motion. The motion demanded that the government explain what consideration had been given to understanding and addressing financial impacts on affected businesses and individuals. The response—I can't even call it an answer—was a day late and not worth the wait, quite frankly. This government is tardy and its lines are tired.

I can only hope that the delay of the expert panel for PFAS advice is due to new developments on the global stage. Legislation recently passed through the house and the senate in Washington in the United States relating to the regulation of PFAS. The bill arose from concern about the high incidence of cancer among firefighters compared to the rest of the community. This time the recommendations didn't just involve firefighting foam, PFAS laden soil and water or homegrown livestock or produce. They involve food packaging. Time and time again, we hear this government saying, 'PFAS is everywhere. Don't worry about it; it doesn't impact your health.' That's not what they're saying in Washington at the moment. They are saying they need to restrict the manufacture, sale and distribution of any food packaging to which PFAS chemicals have been intentionally added in any amount. This is a burgeoning problem across the globe. This government knows what it faces, yet it won't face up to the truth. I would imagine this development would be of interest to the expert panel for PFAS. The panel's terms of reference state:

… the Expert Panel will:

I put on the record now that I want the Expert Health Panel for PFAS to take this into account.

The panel was also tasked with considering the views of the public and other stakeholders through an invitation for public written submissions. My constituents affected by the Department of Defence's PFAS usage are savvy, they are tenacious, they are informed and they ask questions. They smell a rat, and they remember inconsistencies and hypocrisy. When the answers they're given by the state and federal conservative governments and their agencies don't add up with their research, they get angry. They get heartsick and some are now very cynical. We must make sure that they do not give up hope. We have a duty of care to these people affected by PFAS. We are their representatives, and, I say to those opposite, you are their government. I am pleading with you: do something.

I applaud the tenacity of Mrs Ann Clout, who recently wrote to the Prime Minister. She penned a letter to the Prime Minister and his wife. She noted that, while considering the ethical dilemmas brought to the fore by the former Deputy Prime Minister's recent personal turmoil, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed that he had sought counsel from his wife. This news prompted Ann to write to the Prime Minister and his wife. Ann feared it might never be read. Well, I read it yesterday to put it on the record. It is a plea from one woman to another, a plea for human decency, a plea for truth, a plea for empathy, and it's a heartfelt invitation. She wrote:

I invite you, Malcolm, and I invite your wife, Lucy, as you have stated you seek her counsel and turn to her, your "life partner", for advice.

I hope Lucy will see first-hand the human side; the impact and toll this contamination is having on our communities.

I invite you to hear the full and correct facts; information which you have not received from the Department of Defence or PFAS Taskforce advisors.

I invite you, for you to understand the full impact this contamination has had on our health, lives and the devaluation, to zero, of our properties, and therefore the inability for us to be able to leave.

I am asking you and Mrs Turnbull to please visit us, hear us and put an end to our plight of nearly three years.

Yours sincerely,

Ann Clout

Prime Minister, please have the decency to reply to Mrs Clout's invitation, which should be on your desk right now. Call upon your Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, to immediately release the advice from the Expert Health Panel on PFAS. Instruct the head of the PFAS taskforce, Senator James McGrath, to release your government's plan to put things right for those trapped in the red zone. Remove the Department of Defence from any future investigations, and give your instructions to Senator Marise Payne, who has repeatedly said that Defence stands ready to do whatever is asked of it by the government. Most of all, I beg you, accept that these are human beings whose lives, hopes and futures have been decimated. You must help those who are caught in this mess through absolutely no fault of their own. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, come to Williamtown, be the Prime Minister we desperately need you to be and we deserve.