John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate. Mesothelioma: what a terrible disease. It's amazing—as time goes on, we learn from our mistakes. Living on the farm, moving to the Inverell area back in 1979, we had these barns there where they used to hang the tobacco, back in the old tobacco-growing days, when many Italian immigrants came there. The barns would be knocked down, and the panels probably just thrown in the dump on the farm or whatever. People were ignorant, totally ignorant, of what they were actually handling at the time, and what a dangerous, dangerous product asbestos is, and all the harm, suffering and death caused by it. It is amazing. Australia was a huge user of asbestos. It was one of the biggest users of asbestos in the world until the mid-1980s. The legacy of this, of course, is here, now, and for many years in front of us, to clean it up.

This is a good topic to talk about. I think it's something that each and every one of us across the political fields here agrees is a dangerous product. It needs to be disposed of properly. What we learn about it, as time goes on, is that the more we learn, the more we need to spread that knowledge and to clean up the whole environment for future generations. To me, that's what life is about in politics; it's about the future generations. Ask yourself one question: how are we going to leave our country for those who follow us—our kids, grandchildren and those to come after that? If we can leave the country in better shape than we inherited it, we've done a pretty good job. And when I say 'leave the country in better shape', I refer to our rivers—the pollution in the rivers—and especially our soil, our topsoil, which has to grow food for millions and millions of people in the years ahead of us. We need to protect our topsoil. Sadly, that is something not enough people pay attention to. The conservationists and the green movement are always talking about trees and so on, but what about the actual soil? The soil is a great asset we have. In talking about leaving things for future generations, asbestos is no exception.

Senator Singh, I thought, spoke very well, and I agreed with many things she said. But it is a complex challenge simply getting the environment protection authorities from the three tiers of government—from local councils to state government to federal government—working together. It does take some putting together. I'm sure Minister Scullion would be well aware of that in his portfolio. You don't just pull them together, have one meeting, and it's all hunky-dory: 'Let's all be friends and get on with the job.' It doesn't work like that, sadly. But I'm proud of the fact that the government has doubled the funding for the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, ASEA, from 2018-19 onwards.

The thing is—where is all the asbestos? It is hidden behind the walls as insulation. It is hidden in the ceilings. People are probably living amongst asbestos and simply not even aware of it. I know that when I did repairs to my shearing shed years ago we bought panels—fibro. Hopefully, it didn't have asbestos in it. We put them on the sides of the shearing shed because the old ironbark slabs had deteriorated so much. But there's been too much sickness and too great a cost, both money-wise and personally, for so many people—people who've had to work with asbestos, work around that product, and, of course, who have suffered the illness and the terrible death resulting from that.

The government, through the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, ASEA, has been working on the ongoing development, coordination and implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Management and Awareness. The aim of the national strategic plan is to prevent exposure to airborne asbestos fibres in order to eliminate asbestos related disease in Australia. We know this is a long-term challenge, and it's important to ensure the plan is refreshed and remains relevant. The plan provides a framework within which states and territories are able to work cooperatively and independently to achieve set objectives. It is ensuring a coordinated effort across the country to reduce the deadly impact of asbestos on Australians, and will help put Australia at the forefront of international efforts to deal with asbestos. The plan joins all Australian jurisdictions to work together to develop practical long-term solutions to the asbestos problem. It uses a phased approach to work together with the ultimate aim of eliminating asbestos related disease.

Senator Singh made a good point: where do you dispose of the asbestos waste? If the local government's going to charge too much, if the pits are expensive to form, then people are simply going to junk it. Out on the road at night-time, in a gully on the side of the road, on a stock route—who knows where? Just get rid of it, throw it out wherever you are, and, of course, this causes more problems, spreads the asbestos around the countryside and makes an even more widespread and bigger mess to clean up. So we must encourage those who are going to remove the asbestos to dispose of it properly and safely.

One of the big problems we face is the do-it-yourself workers at home. They might buy an old home; it might be 80 or 100 years old. It might already have been renovated perhaps in the sixties and seventies with asbestos lining, asbestos this, asbestos that—with many materials made from asbestos—and they might think: 'Well, it's getting a bit old and tattered. The paint's worn off. We'll just get the crowbar and sledgehammer and smash it all down and throw it in the bin and drop it up at the local dump. It'll be right.' How do they know what they're dealing with? Surely, one of the problems we face is education. I've got to plead ignorance here. If you give me a panel of some building material, how do I know there's asbestos in it? This is one of the problems of educating people to be well aware of what they're dealing with at the time. When it comes to the do-it-yourself worker doing those jobs on a home renovation, it might be an 800 square metre house block that has a three-bedroom home and an old shed down the back that has been there for many years. 'We'll knock the shed down.' Do they realise what they're doing with the walls et cetera? It gets worse. When you look at Western Australia, there's a problem where they had cement tiles for the roofing for houses, many of them for many years. Now they are decaying, getting old and giving off the fibres. It's a very widespread problem.

That's why, for the plan, it's important to work together to construct the best team right across all jurisdictions to see how we can deal with this. I talked about the plan providing the framework within the states and territories so they can work together. The first phase of the plan, 2014 to 2018, focused on the conducting and disseminating of research projects and the testing of approaches to gather the evidence, supporting tools and systems to identify options that reduce the risks posed by asbestos in the built environment. Strategies were identified as a means of achieving the plan and increasing the public's awareness of the health risks of asbestos. We're doing that here today by talking about it, and, hopefully, those who are listening on radio are getting a message from that. It is something I'm not an expert on, I can tell you. I need to be educated as well. There is supporting and promoting research to learn more about the product and how we can deal with it, and improving information about the identification and location of asbestos. As I said, it's about education. There is developing best practice in all aspects of asbestos management, identifying priority areas to improve the safe removal of asbestos, working to stop asbestos imports to Australia and campaigning to achieve a worldwide ban on asbestos mining and manufacturing. Those are some very important issues about the removal of asbestos. Then, where do we deposit it once it's removed? There is the safe deposit, the safe storage and the safe dumping of the product.

Australia is widely recognised for its international leadership on asbestos management. The government is impressed by the commitment all governments have shown towards the implementation of the national strategic plan to identify the priority risks of asbestos exposure in Australia and in the community. This plan must be adhered to, put together and expanded, because it's got to be a team effort right across the nation to achieve the goal, which is to make it safer for future generations and, of course, safer for those today who have to work with it. Senator Singh said the task of all levels of government in many portfolios is not complex. It may be complex; we call it complex, but that's why we're here: to solve complex issues. All levels of government across many portfolios involve asbestos—safety, public health, planning and environment to name just a few—so it is bringing departments together to work on this very issue.

Looking at New South Wales, the following case studies from ASEA's National strategic plan for asbestos management and awareness progress report 2015-16 demonstrate best-practice initiatives to address illegal disposal practices. But here's the problem: it's very convenient to go out and do it at night, especially when you live in a rural area, as there are plenty of dirt roads et cetera and there is simply no-one about at night-time. The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority's Waste Less Recycle More initiative 'supports grant programs for local government, business, industry and the community to stimulate new investment and transform waste and recycling in New South Wales. In this case study, the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service:

… used this program to identify and target hotspots of illegal dumping in two of their conservation areas. EPA funding was used to develop a strategy, gather data, clean-up dumped asbestos and install barriers, signs and surveillance cameras to deter future dumping.

But it's a big country. I'm talking about New South Wales here. There's a lot of area to watch. Surveillance cameras might be good for some areas of hotspots, but you can't have surveillance cameras all over the countryside. The report continued:

The grant funding supported the clean-up of 97 sites including over 607 tonnes of asbestos—

607 tonnes—

923 tonnes of mixed waste, 1186 tyres and 221 mattresses. Regulatory action taken resulted in 18 investigations resulting in 6 penalty notices, sites being cleaned-up by offenders and a successful court prosecution.

I mentioned the cement roofs in Western Australia. A project is currently being undertaken in Western Australia to manage asbestos cement roofs that were installed between the 1940s and 1980s throughout the state. These roofs are now 'increasingly deteriorating and coming to the end of their useful life'. To quote from the case study:

As asbestos cement roofs deteriorate they release asbestos fibres into the environment. As they age they become more brittle increasing the risk of falls and the complexity of intact sheet removal.

In other words, the older they get, the more fragile they get, and, when you try to remove them in one piece, there is more chance of them just falling apart and the fibres of course falling out. The case study continues:

Asbestos cement roofs can cause considerable contamination as a result of fires, non-compliant removal practices, and illegal dumping.

We come back to illegal dumping, which is what they are finding in Western Australia as well.

The Department of Health Western Australia is increasingly providing advice or direction to building owners recommending removal over maintenance of existing asbestos cement roofs. However, there are a number of obstacles to the safe removal and replacement of asbestos cement roofs, relating mostly to cost and a poor understanding of the legislative removal and disposal processes. The aim of the asbestos roofs project is to identify the obstacles for the removal of these products in the residential environment and investigate strategies to overcome these.

We are facing a big problem here, a big problem that's going to cost money and time and that's going to require coordination of all levels of government.

Senator Singh touched on another issue, talking about the asbestos brake pads in Chinese cars—the Great Wall, I think. This is another issue we face: imports. We need to remain vigilant to the risk of imported products containing asbestos. There's been increased focus on this issue, and the workload of the Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities Imported Materials with Asbestos Working Group and the Asbestos Interdepartmental Committee has increased as more asbestos-containing products have been identified. They have actually increased their surveillance. We have also seen more applications for permits to import asbestos-containing materials for the purpose of research, analysis or display. More requests for permits show that businesses are becoming more aware of the risk and are making efforts to ensure their products are asbestos free.

ASEA released Australia's first National Asbestos Profile at the recent Asbestos Safety and Eradication Summit. The National Asbestos Profile, NAP, supports Australia's national strategic plan and, over time, will be used to demonstrate progress made towards eliminating asbestos related diseases in Australia. I talked about the do-it-yourself builder, the home person, the renovator. They've been identified as an emerging group at risk of exposure to asbestos in the residential sector in Australia. Awareness and education are therefore key to ensuring home owners and renovators remain vigilant to the risks. The National Asbestos Profile collates a range of existing information and research data that reflect the significant impact of asbestos in Australia.

This is a big problem. I'm glad to see this motion come forward today where we can work together and highlight the dangers of asbestos, working together with the funding, knowledge, research and experience to do the best we can to protect those around it, to dispose of it, to see that it's not imported in the future and to give our children an asbestos-free Australia and world.

Debate interrupted.