Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note with interest the progress that Senator McGrath outlined in that very brief contribution on the MPI, but the reality is that there are completed Senate inquiries into this subject and recommendations with the government. All of that short summation of activity has not addressed the recommendations that were made for Williamtown and Oakey. The recommendations basically have been on the public record for an inordinate amount of time, probably 18 months. The government has moved incredibly slowly and incredibly cautiously in the face of broad community concern.

The simple reality is that it has been measured that PFOS or PFOA contamination has come off the bases and affected people's property. It has affected their material property, which has diminished in value. There have been calls for compensation by Senate committee reports, and the government has not done anything in the way of compensating those affected landholders. Sure, they have had provision for mental health and counselling services, and quite appropriately so because, if you paid $600,000 for your property and it's now worth next to nothing, you would be under a bit of stress and would probably need guidance to get your daily activities back to where they were.

In Oakey we met an 85-year-old horse trainer, who said: 'You can do what you like, but you can't bring my business back. No-one wants to put a horse in training with me because you people have contaminated the soil. You've contaminated the waterways. My business is destroyed. It's just not good enough. You need to compensate me.' It's fairly ironic I suppose that in some areas of Queensland there was great opposition to Defence's acquisition of land on a compulsory basis. On a compulsory basis they were seeking to extend Shoalwater Bay and areas around Townsville and take property off people. There is a well-established process for doing that. There was such a revolt from, amongst others, the Liberal National Party in Queensland and, I believe, those in the Pauline Hanson party that the government backed off and didn't do it. There are well-established guidelines. They know how to do it. They could compulsively acquire all of these affected properties around Oakey and Williamtown. They probably should do that. Then they could, under their guidance, properly remediate the properties. They would own it. The people who are affected now who want to get out would be getting out in a fair and equitable way.

It's an absolute disgrace what's happening here. When you question the defence minister at estimates, the standard answer you get is that it's with PM&C and, in particular, Senator McGrath. Senator McGrath has in a short five-minute contribution put the position of the government on the table here today. It doesn't go anywhere close to meeting either the recommendations of the Senate references committee or the expectations of those people who have been unjustly treated and unjustly affected.

Who would have thought that a place in the Northern Territory that has never had a water problem in the whole of its history—the Katherine River is a mighty river—would have to go on water restrictions? Their ability to blend their artesian water with river water has been taken away from them by Defence. We've done it. Whether it was a Labor government with a Labor defence minister or a Liberal government with a Liberal defence minister, we've taken away that community's right to fresh water. Their ability to sustain their community has been diminished and they have had restrictions, and Defence is moving at about a snail's pace to fix that. There are property owners there who don't know whether they can grow any of their vegetables anymore. That is disgraceful. It's no different at Williamtown, where property owners were told by the relevant state department: 'Don't eat your vegies. Don't eat the vegies you grow there. Don't eat the fish you catch in the creek.' And at Oakey it was exactly the same.

And there's a wider and deeper community who are affected by this as well. It's all of those former service people, people who worked on the bases, people who worked in those particular areas, firefighters and the like, mechanics and the like who were exposed to PFOS and PFOA over many years. Those people are rightly concerned. You know what the Defence personnel said at one of the meetings with the affected concerned residents? 'This is the new asbestos.' That came straight out of the mouth of one of the leading respondents for Defence. They told a group of people this is the new asbestos, and then, when they became concerned about the implications for their health, Defence said: 'No. There is no evidence. There is none of this. There is none of that. But don't eat your fish, don't eat your vegetables and we'll see if we can think about what we can do about the diminished value of your property holdings.'

It's not good enough and it should not be a matter of partisan political debate in this chamber. Every person in this chamber should be batting for those ordinary, everyday Australians who had their health questioned and queried. They don't really know their ability to live a normal life—they have got mental anguish over that—and they have their property devalued. And whoever is responsible for that—and I think it is exceedingly clear at Williamtown, Oakey and Tindal that it's Defence; and we know that there are potentially 70 other Defence sites in Australia which may have a similar issue or problem—I would have thought it would be incumbent on this government to get a concise, concerted plan in place to address these pressing concerns. And it shouldn't have taken this long. It should not still be a matter at Williamtown and Oakey.

Defence's infrastructure is enormous. And we know, because Defence has been on that estate for more than 100 years, that there are contamination problems on a lot of Defence's estate. So, like any holder of a vast amount of land, they should have proper environmental safeguards and standards where, when there is an identified problem, they should know how to fix it. It shouldn't be hit and miss as it appears to be at the moment: 'Oh, we have a problem. We don't really know what to do. Let's have a study. Let's look at what happened somewhere else.' If they own this estate—which they do—and it's immensely valuable and extremely large, they should have a coherent environmental standards group which, when these sorts of things come to the fore, is able to easily and quickly put proper safeguards in place.

Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that at all. One of the sites that has been remediated, the Victorian site of Point Cook, only really got its remediation efforts properly funded when the contaminant was leaking into Port Phillip Bay. When it started leaking into Port Phillip Bay, the remediation became an urgent priority, money was found, it went through the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works and it happened and was done. We shouldn't have Oakey, Williamtown, Katherine or any of these other emerging sites waiting until they get to the catastrophic stage before Defence moves on it. It shouldn't be that way. The way Senator McGrath has answered the concerns here today is very brief, not enough, does not have enough money, does not have enough action and is not going to sort out these communities.

These communities have been exceedingly patient. Their status is evidentiary based. It's not hard to work out that their properties are now not worth what they paid for them. They should be compensated. Their health issues should be addressed. Defence should be moving 100 times faster than what it is. Government should be on the job in the first instance, whether it's through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet or whichever one they want to do it through, acting to take these hard-working Australians and putting them back in the shape they were before this event occurred.

People need to be put back in the shape they were before this event happened. We do know—it's evidentiary based—PFOS used on bases has leached into creeks, artesian waterways and surface waterways and caused untold harm and damage to a number of communities and a vast number of people. This government should get on the front foot and act immediately. The Defence estate is huge. They should be able to meet these challenges by doing whatever they need to do; if they need to sell something to fund this, they should do that.