Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Santoro, the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing. Minister, in relation to the cancer cluster at the ABC studios at Toowong, what has been the outcome of the inquiry by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, ARPANSA—

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, the juvenile interjections coming from those opposite are not germane to this very important issue. I ask: what is the outcome of that ARPANSA—

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister opposite, who is interjecting, should listen to this question because it is an important and serious one. Minister, what has the ARPANSA inquiry discovered and when will the report be made available?

Santo Santoro (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to 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—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I did not want to cut the minister off but, before he sits down, I want to draw his attention to the question, which was specifically about the extremely low radiation emissions and the ARPANSA report, and whether the minister knows what is in that report and can report to the Senate about that.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown, what is your point of order?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is not answering the question.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order.

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

In relation to Senator Brown’s subsequent question through the point of order, I will certainly make available to Senator Brown any information that is made available to me in terms of that report. I give an undertaking that I will consult with the health minister and see if there is any further information that I can provide to Senator Brown. In terms of what I was saying about Mr Scott addressing the issue, the government is very grateful. I know that the general public understands that he acted with haste and with all due regard for the health and welfare of ABC employees.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I ask specifically if the minister can look at that ARPANSA study and report to the Senate on whether the extremely low frequency emissions have been assessed and what the results are; and secondly, why weren’t those emissions measured two years ago when the people working in the studios first made the request to have them measured?

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

I undertake to have a look at the questions that Senator Brown has asked. If I am able to report any additional information to Senator Brown at the next sitting, I will do so.