Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Employment (Senator Abetz) to a question without notice asked by Senator Di Natale today relating to a fire at the Hazelwood coal mine in Morwell, Victoria.

On 9 February this year a significant fire erupted at the Hazelwood power plant near Morwell. It was a significant fire. For those people who do not know Morwell, it is located in the Latrobe Valley. The Latrobe Valley is an area where there are significant coalmines and coal fired power stations. Those mines and power stations are located very close to several townships. The Hazelwood power station is located literally metres from a number of homes in the Morwell community.

The fire there has been burning for almost a month. We do not know when the fire will be extinguished. The consequence of that fire is that the township of Morwell has been engulfed in a blanket of toxic smoke. People there were initially exposed to carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a dangerous substance when it reaches particular levels. It appears that the carbon monoxide levels have now stabilised. They are being monitored and it looks as though people will not have any significant long-term health effects, providing that carbon monoxide levels remain where they are.

The major concern is the issue of particulate matter, particularly fine particulate matter, which is the invisible suspension of dust particles that people cannot see. They are very small, they penetrate deep into the lungs and they are associated with very significant health effects. We know that when people are exposed to high levels of particulate matter the acute health effects can be significant. People who have pre-existing heart disease are more likely to have a heart attack. People who have got respiratory disease, such as young kids with asthma, are more likely to suffer from an asthma attack—and those things can be very serious. There is real concern about the long-term health impacts of particulate matter. The question is: what is long-term exposure? The longer this fire burns, the more likely it is that people will experience those longer term impacts, which are very serious indeed.

We knew when this fire started that it would be burning for weeks. That is what happens when fires erupt in coalmines. We knew that. Despite that knowledge and despite the knowledge that people were being exposed and would continue to be exposed to this toxic smoke, we have seen a spectacular failure of leadership. We saw the state government sit on its hands. They were very slow in recognising that this was a very serious health issue. They decided not to declare a state of emergency, despite all the knowledge being that this would pose very serious health impacts on the people of Morwell. They sent mixed messages.

Thankfully, we saw the Victorian education minister show some leadership and decide that kids should not be educated in the township of Morwell. They were taken away from the town. They were sent to schools away from Morwell but then they were bussed back in, leaving people to ponder: 'Why is it that, on one hand, we are saying that young kids should not be in the town during school hours yet, on the other hand, suddenly it is okay for them to be in town out of hours?'

Recently, we have seen the advice escalate. The advice is that people should now leave the town. The response from the Premier was insulting to the people of Morwell. The Premier suggested that he would offer his holiday home to anybody who needs it. That is not leadership. That is somebody who is asleep at the wheel—someone who is completely out of touch with what is happening in the state of Victoria.

Thankfully, we have seen my state colleagues acting. The Greens leader Greg Barber led the charge for a state of emergency and Colleen Hartland, who is a former resident of Morwell, showed leadership on the issue. Why is it that the mine operators have not been hauled before the government to explain how this happened, why it was not prevented from happening, and what we are going to do to fix it and to assist the people of Morwell? We have seen, again, the government fail to exercise their duty which is, first and foremost, the duty of any government—that is, to protect the public health of our community.

Thankfully, there is an opportunity here. We know that air-quality monitoring has been neglected for too long around the country. We had a Senate inquiry into the issue. That inquiry suggested that we needed to lift our game when it comes to setting appropriate standards and when it comes to monitoring air quality, particularly around things like coalmines. The question now is: are we going to take some action or are we going to continue to sit on our hands? (Time expired)

Question agreed to.