Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Georgiou for his question and for some notice of the question. As I've said in the chamber before, this is a very complex legacy situation, faced not only by the Commonwealth's Department of Defence. I can confirm that I received Senator Georgiou's original letter, which I believe was dated 21 December, but it wasn't received in my office until 4 January. We have been in the process of investigating the issues which were raised in that letter, and I am finalising a response to the senator now and also to Minister Porter in the other place, who raised the same issues with me.

As part of the environmental investigation that's been conducted at RAAF Base Pearce, the particular bore, which is located on the senator's constituent's property, was sampled on 18 October 2016. On 28 October 2016 the constituent was advised that the bore result was below the limit of detection—that is, a 'non-detect'. That means that their bore is also below the FSANZ—the Food Standards Australia New Zealand—base guidance value for drinking water of 0.07 micrograms per litre

In July of last year, the Defence department made follow-up contact with the senator's constituent, seeking consent to undertake further sampling of the bore. On 29 August last year, the department was advised that the constituent was seeking legal advice and that Defence should not engage with the constituent in any way. Defence has respected that request from the senator's constituent, and since August 2017 has not been in direct contact with them. I can advise the chamber and the senator that Defence would still like to re-sample the bore that is located on that property to confirm the initial results, if permission were to be given. I'm more than happy to discuss that matter further with Senator Georgiou.