Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brown for his question. I can advise him that 10 cases of breast cancer have been diagnosed among employees working at the ABC’s Toowong studios in the last 12 years. The last case was diagnosed in July 2006. The ABC moved staff from its Toowong premises immediately after it received an expert report concluding that the incidence of breast cancer at Toowong was six times higher than among the general population of Queensland women. The expert panel chaired by Dr Bruce Armstrong, the director of research at the Sydney Cancer Centre and professor of public health at Sydney university, has been unable to find a link between the high incidence of breast cancer and the work environment or technology in use at the ABC studios in Toowong and it is continuing its investigations.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend the ABC for its quick action in starting to move staff from its Toowong site on the day it was told of the panel’s findings—21 December 2006. The ABC has temporarily relocated staff to other premises, including the Ten Network’s Mount Coot-tha studios and other sites in south-east Queensland. All staff had moved from the Toowong site by the end of January. The ABC is looking for a new permanent location for its Brisbane operations. The ABC is offering support and counselling services to staff, including free mammograms for all female staff. The ABC will commission a study of breast cancer cases at its other sites around Australia and, of course, it has undertaken to keep the government updated on this issue.

As further information becomes available and is able to be provided to Senator Brown and other senators, if I am asked a question I will do my best to satisfy such a request. May I also express the government’s appreciation for the way that the new Managing Director of the ABC, Mr Mark Scott, has decisively dealt with the issue. He has come under some criticism, particularly by the Queensland government, which we think is undeserved. As soon as that problem was definitively diagnosed, Mr Scott, on behalf of employees—