Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that, at 8.30 am today, four proposals were received in accordance with standing order 75. The question of which proposal would be submitted to the Senate was determined by lot.

As a result, I inform the Senate that the following letter has been received from Senator Burston:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I propose that the following matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion:

'The need to remediate water supplies, contaminated by the long term use of firefighting foams containing per-fluorinated chemicals (PFAS) and to compensate those affected.'

Is the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

I understand that informal arrangements have been made to allocate specific times to each of the speakers in today's debate. With the concurrence of the Senate, I shall ask the clerks to set the clock accordingly.

Brian Burston (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to discuss the need to remediate water supplies contaminated by the long-term use of firefighting foams containing perfluorinated chemicals, PFAS, and to compensate those affected. The No. 1 priority of any government is to protect its citizens. However, what is happening now is that the very department that is meant to protect us is doing the exact opposite. I have raised this urgent issue on behalf of the residents affected by the contamination leaching from the RAAF base at Williamtown in New South Wales on a number of occasions in this place, including in my first speech, where I said:

Another example of disconnect between rulers and ruled in Australia is the Defence bureaucracy's treatment of communities adversely affected by Defence Force contamination of their groundwater by toxic fire-fighting foam. Groundwater has been poisoned at bases in Williamtown in New South Wales and Oakey in Queensland, as well as another 16 sites around Australia. Residents are desperate. They cannot sell their properties as they are now worthless. They are exposed to potential severe medical complaints. And the Defence authorities? They do not listen. Reports show that the ADF knew of the problem as early as 2003 and failed to act. Its statements on the matter express more concern about bad press than about the health of local residents, who are unable to eat locally grown produce or use bore water. Why this indifference?

My first speech was more than 16 months ago. After meeting with ministers and writing to ministers imploring action to be taken, nothing has changed, although, according to a Four Corners report last year, it appears that Defence knew about the concerns with PFAS as far back as 1987, rather than 2003 as I mentioned in my first speech.

Last year, I wrote to Senator McGrath, who was heading up the so-called task force to oversee the whole-of-government response to PFAS, asking for the government's response to the 8 July 2017 article in the Newcastle Herald titled 'Cabbage Tree Road cancer figures "mind-boggling"'. The response from Senator McGrath was extremely disappointing, to put it mildly, especially considering that on the same day I received his response there were revelations in the same newspaper that a 49th person with cancer had come forward, who had lived on Cabbage Tree Road at Williamtown, just south of the RAAF base. When I read Senator McGrath's response, which included the line, 'There is currently no consistent evidence that exposure to PFAS causes adverse human health effects,' I almost fell off my chair. According to that same newspaper article in July last year, there is a report by a Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health professor that indicates that PFAS chemicals can suppress the body's immune system.

I'm livid at the lack of action and compassion being shown by this government to the communities surrounding the RAAF Williamtown base, in Oakey, and now in Katherine in the Northern Territory, which are severely affected by this PFAS contamination. Pauline Hanson's One Nation has offered a number of solutions to the government for funding the work on remediation, plus voluntary buyouts, but they seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

While I've been scathing of the coalition government's inaction on this issue, the Labor Party is just as guilty of turning a blind eye. Last year, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon moved a motion calling on the federal government to urgently commence a process of voluntary buyouts of affected properties and develop a plan to clean up contamination from the Williamtown RAAF base, and on the New South Wales EPA to re-examine the current boundaries of the Williamtown investigation area and investigate reports of extensive contamination outside the current boundaries. It's not often that One Nation agrees on anything with the Greens, let alone votes with them. However, the disaster that is PFAS contamination, which is severely affecting the community around the Williamtown RAAF base, is above politics.

I spoke in support of the motion on behalf of the Pauline Hanson's One Nation senators and the affected communities, and we then all voted with the Greens senators to pass the motion in the Senate. While I expected the government to vote against the motion, I was shocked to see Labor senators stay in their seats and vote with the government against the motion, especially considering what had been said in the media by both the Labor member for Paterson, Meryl Swanson, and the state Labor member for Port Stephens. All Ms Swanson wants to do is gallivant around the world on the taxpayer dollar rather than fight for her constituents. Late last year, there was another motion put by the Greens on this issue. Pauline Hanson's One Nation would have supported the original motion, but it seems that it was watered down so Labor would support it and give some cover to their local MPs, who are coming under pressure to tell the community what they will do if they win the next election.

Like the government, Labor is all talk on this issue. On the Four Corners program last year, it was discovered that there was a report back in 1987 detailing concerns about the impact of PFAS on the then proposed base at Tindal, two years before it was opened by the Labor government. A Defence spokesman on the program also admitted that they should have warned the residents surrounding the Williamtown RAAF base that PFAS was leaching onto their properties in 2012. Who was in government in 2012? That's right—the Labor Party. It seems either that defence ministers since 1987 have some explaining to do or that the department has kept those defence ministers in the dark. I'm not sure which is worse.

With the federal election due as early as August this year and current polling suggesting that Labor could be back in government, I call on the Labor Party to come up with a concrete policy for these poor souls living with this issue day in and day out. That being said, the response by the government to the motion that passed the Senate late last year, which was tabled last week by Senator McGrath, was ordinary to say the least.

I have consistently been calling for the government to immediately start the process of voluntary buyouts to help those affected residents get on with their lives. As I suggested in a question to the defence minister late last year, at the very least the government should immediately set up a fund similar to the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. Whilst I know it may be a drop in the ocean compared to what the residents need, at least it may alleviate the immense financial burden these residents are under and show them that the government does care about them.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation has been urging action on this matter since before the last federal election. I'm in ongoing discussions with our leader, Senator Pauline Hanson, who has a similarly affected community up at Oakey in Queensland, on what action we can take to pressure the government to act. Unfortunately, it may be time for our senators to repeat what we did to get the code of conduct for the sugar industry before this government is willing to do something tangible for those affected by this contamination.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Burston for his remarks and for his interest in this complex issue. The issue of PFAS contamination is a complex issue and we're dealing with a very complicated legacy issue because of the wide variety of potential sources. This is an issue for all levels of government—not just the Commonwealth government but also state and territory governments. PFAS contamination impacts not just military bases but also airports, state firefighting training facilities, rural firefighting training facilities, local dumps and private industrial facilities in the chemical and oil industries. This is why a nationally consistent approach for responding to PFAS contamination is being considered by COAG to ensure all levels of government cooperate for the benefit of all affected communities across Australia. It is also essential that any action by the Commonwealth be very clearly based on evidence, proportionate to the level of risk and fiscally sustainable into the future for all governments and private industry.

Despite the widespread use of the chemicals that are under the PFAS umbrella, the human health impact of these chemicals is still inconclusive. We know these chemicals can persist in humans, animals and the environment. We do know that the human body gets rid of PFAS over time, so once exposure is reduced or stopped, any PFAS in the body will reduce. But there is currently no consistent evidence that PFAS is harmful to human health. Some human health studies have found associations between exposure to these chemicals and health effects, and others have not. In addition, the studies have found associations were not able to determine with certainty whether the health effects were caused by the chemical being studied or by other factors.

So more research is required before definitive statements can be made on causality or risk, which is what we are doing. We're undertaking the $12½ million national research program into the human health effects of prolonged exposure to PFAS across Oakey in my home state of Queensland, Williamtown in Senator Burston's state of New South Wales and Katherine in the Northern Territory. This is a best-practice study to better understand if there are any long-term human health impacts. The study will produce high-class information that will be available first and foremost to the community and to the government and decision-makers.

The Department of Health have also established an expert health panel to advise the Australian government on the potential health impacts associated with PFAS exposure and identify priority areas for further research. It is expected that the panel will provide its advice to the Minister for Health in late February 2018, and the panel's advice will be released publicly soon after. The panel will also provide its advice into priority research areas to the National Health and Medical Research Council to inform their targeted call for research for the PFAS substances area in the national health research program.

I need to stress that the full extent of PFAS contamination across the Commonwealth estate is still being determined. To help remove the chemical and remediate the environment, the Department of Defence is examining a range of other technologies that have the potential to remediate contaminated water and soil.

The Australian government has invested heavily in a wide range of activities to address PFAS contamination and its impacts and to better understand the potential health effects of PFAS exposure. I've already mentioned the national research program into human health effects of prolonged exposure to PFAS. There has been $55 million spent to support the communities of Williamtown and Oakey to reduce exposure, manage the environmental impacts and provide dedicated mental health and counselling services, a voluntary blood-testing program and an epidemiological study into potential health effects from exposure to PFAS. There has been $5.7 million spent to better support the Katherine community through access to the voluntary blood-testing program, the study and additional dedicated mental health and counselling services. There is $15 million being spent on the national PFAS Remediation Research Program to support the development of innovative technologies to investigate and remediate PFAS contaminated areas, including soil and other solid contaminated debris, groundwater, waterways and marine systems. (Time expired)

Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate before us today is most important. Across Australia, hundreds and hundreds of sites have now been identified as being contaminated with firefighting foam. The chemicals associated with that, known as PFOS and PFOA, have been identified as causing a range of health problems. We are seeing a government that is not managing it properly. I see stressed residents, who are uncertain of their futures and have seen their property values collapse, being fobbed off by the government. The stress that they're living with is extreme, and it's a real indictment of this government. Last Tuesday we saw the government come forward with a report that so many people were hoping would give them some certainty, but it has just added to the anger, confusion and stress.

We need to understand what we're dealing with, with these poisons, because I sometimes think that people think, 'Yes, another contamination.' It's not 'another contamination'. These are human-made chemicals that do not break down. They accumulate in the soil and the water. They bioaccumulate in the bodies of living organisms and in human beings. The critical issue to understand here is that they do not break down. Why don't they break down? Human beings were too clever: when they made these chemicals they made them in such a way that their structure would stay in place, even when it became soluble in water. That needs to be understood to understand the enormity of this problem—these chemicals build up and up in our bodies.

I want to share with you something that my colleague Senator Janet Rice alerted me too. She went to the wonderful dinner that the ABC puts on for people involved in Heywire. There was a young man there named Jarrod Sansom from Newcastle. I want to share with you some of his comments. It brings home the human side of what we're dealing with here. This young man was raised on one of the farms at Williamtown. They had 50 acres, and he described how wonderful his life was growing up with all the animals. They decided, after a point, that they had to leave their farm. This was before word of the contamination had been released. He said it was an upheaval for their family, leaving 100-plus years of family heritage behind. They moved away, and then they found out the devastating news. Initially, they were concerned about the neighbours they had left behind. These are Jarrod's words:

The RAAF base had been using fire extinguishers since the 1950s that contained toxic chemicals.

Over time, carcinogenic substances entered the town's drainage system, contaminating the water table.

The health impact on our family has now come to light.

My grandfather, along with three of his siblings Valmay, Milton and Monty, all died of stomach cancer.

Many of our old neighbours have been infected and fear the same fate.

Mum, Dad, my siblings and I all ate fresh produce from gardens which thrived on the contaminated water.

We all have to be tested—something we're putting off. Not out of laziness, but worry.

I don't feel angry at the RAAF base like many people do. I just feel devastated for those we left behind, in the 'red zone'.

It simply breaks my heart that people we grew up with are at risk of cancer.

Their homes are worth nothing; they can't even get a loan to do up a kitchen.

I can't begin to describe how sorry I feel for people still in the red zone.

Senator McGrath, Senator Paterson and everybody else on the coalition benches need to take that on board. This is the reality. You can come forward here and quote people saying, 'Well, the science isn't clear.' There are so many cancer clusters in this area. If you dig into the science, it is very clear what is going on.

And then there are the financial implications for the property values. How would any of us who owns a home feel if, all of a sudden, we found out that it was worthless because of contamination which we had nothing to do with? In fact, there is another body, in this case the federal government, that admits total responsibility. But that doesn't mean anything for these people. What they're left with is trying to pick up the pieces of their lives. They can't get compensation, they can't sell their property to anybody and they can't get a settlement from the government. This has been dragging on for years.

We got the Senate inquiry up in 2015. It's now 2018. One of the residents whom I have met a number of times is Lindsay Clout, from the Fullerton Cove Residents Action Group. He also runs a small business in horticulture there. The property is beautiful, but it's now in the red zone. This is what he said about last week's report:

Senator McGrath has a hide to be going in and telling the banks everything is alright … Then those guys are looking at your newspaper—

the Newcastle Herald

and seeing 50 cancer cases on a four-kilometre stretch.

Again, that is the reality which these people are living with. I make reference to his comments about the banks because it was something that was featured in Senator McGrath's report last week about the discussions that he had been having with various financial institutions. An Australian Bankers' Association spokesperson said, 'It was relying on the government to lead on the important issue and was assisting where possible.' But, again, when you read what is going on here—not that we're hearing everything the goes on behind closed doors, obviously—it's just like the spin that turns people off governments and politics so much these days. This spokesperson said:

Residents in affected areas should contact their bank with any concerns they may have or if they are experiencing financial difficulties.

These people have so many stories. Senator McGrath, you must have heard them when you went to Williamtown. It was one of the first things they raised with us. These are the comments from the government that have so incensed residents. They had feared the information that they might receive about how the government is handling the situation, but I think it even shocked those who were not really expecting anything in terms of the government's handling of it.

The Insurance Council of Australia has also been involved in this, and the issue has come up about the health consequences and to what degree that information has been relayed to the banks. It really has been quite minimal. I'm aware that Campbell Fuller from Insurance Council of Australia said that they were made aware of the US EPA study in 2016, but he goes on to say that 'the contamination had not had an effect on the availability or pricing of household insurance'. There are many examples where that is just not the case. There is the case of Ryan Baker. He has been looking to get a business loan. His house is located in the red zone, and he wanted a business loan so that he could get on with his life. He can't get that loan. These stories are repeated time and time again. This is an issue across Australia; we're hearing more and more reports of this contamination. There is the Gold Coast Airport and we've heard other speakers detail the Katherine situation. The reports there nominate that just about everyone in the town of Katherine has been impacted. It is seriously extraordinary the depth of the poisoning that is going on, yet you rely on a few crossbenchers to rattle the chains and put this on the agenda here. Sydney Airport is another one, and there is Oakey in Queensland. The list goes on and on.

Then there are the firefighters who contacted us who talked about how they undertook their training and they are worried about themselves and about the area where they undertook the training, with no proper safeguards in place. There's a report that cattle farmers in Queensland and New South Wales, near the Oakey and Williamtown bases, are concerned they are selling contaminated meat. They have told me that they are told not to eat the meat, but they can sell the meat.

This is a huge crisis. It is out of control. How much is this going to be allowed to go on? It's not about saying the Liberal-Nationals are to blame or that Labor is to blame. There's huge fault, and I think there's blame for the immediate situation, but this has a long-term history. We should now all be pulling together saying that the right thing will be done by the people and the right thing will be done in cleaning up the contaminated bases.

Many things have shocked me in dealing with the Williamtown community, but the one that really topped it was when I found out that they haven't stopped the contamination coming off the base. In this day and age, that is totally possible. Yes, it's hard to clean up this toxic pollution, but it can be stopped from coming off the base. But the pollution is out there and it's getting into the water—into the water of the Hunter. This is a disaster, and all parties should be working together. (Time expired)

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Burston for raising this important issue in the Senate. I have listened carefully to the contributions so far by other senators, including Senator Rhiannon, Senator Gallacher and Senator McGrath. One of the things we should all bear in mind when we deal with issues that are sensitive like this, where there is community concern and fear—and Senator Rhiannon certainly raised the fears that some people hold about this issue—is that we do so in a very measured and very considered way that is based on evidence and doesn't engage in speculation. When people are afraid, it does not help them at all to play on those fears, to play up those fears, and not actually to provide them with the scientific evidence we have available on this issue.

I want to make one other general point before I get to the substance of the issue. I was interested to hear Senator Burston talk about how rare it is that he and One Nation agree with the Greens. That is certainly the image that One Nation likes to portray to its supporters, and no doubt that's the image the Greens like to portray to their supporters. But the truth is that the Greens and One Nation are political bedfellows much more often than any of the voters who send them here would like to think they are, particularly on economic matters. When it comes to questions of trade and questions of banking or financial services, time and time again the Greens and One Nation take a very similar populist line on economics and vote together, and they did so only last week.

But that's obviously not the substantive matter we're here to consider today, which is the issue of PFAS. In listening to the debate so far, one thing I have noticed that has not been explained is the ubiquity of PFAS as a class of chemicals and how common they are in household products and items. If you had listened to the debate so far, you may be under the impression it's only the armed forces and the emergency services that have used them on bases. But, in fact, over the last 50 years, in Australia and globally, PFAS has been used in a range of industrial, medical and consumer products, including stain protection for carpets, fabric and furniture; cosmetics; sunscreens; paper coating; water-resistant packaging; rubber; plastics; electronic parts for printers and copiers; insecticides; metal plating; plastics etching; photographic materials; aviation hydraulic fluid; non-stick frying pans; medical devices; and, of course, firefighting foam, as we've heard. PFAS as a class of chemicals is so widespread in its use that almost every person on earth has been exposed to it and would have a degree of it within their blood.

The question of health impact is a very important one. We do know that these chemicals can persist in human beings, in animals and in the environment. But I'm advised that there is currently no consistent evidence that PFAS is harmful to human health. I will come back to that in a moment, but the important thing there is that the evidence is not consistent.

We do know also that the human body can get rid of PFAS over time. Once that exposure is reduced or stopped, any PFAS in the human body will reduce. That's why the government have taken, I think, the very sensible and prudent step to allocate $12½ million to the national research program into the human health effects of prolonged exposure to PFAS, which we're undertaking at the moment across Oakey, Williamtown and Katherine. It is a best practice study that will that help us better understand if there are any long-term human health impacts.

It's absolutely true, as Senator Burston said, that there are some studies which have found associations between exposure to these chemicals and health effects, but there are also other studies that have not found that same relationship. In addition, those studies that found associations were not able to determine with certainty whether the health effects were caused by the chemical being studied or by other factors such as smoking. It's very important to understand the causal relationship there if we're to be able to deal with this issue appropriately. It's very clear that more research is required before we can be absolutely definitive about this issue of causality. That is what the government is supporting.

As you've heard, the Department of Health has established an expert health panel to advise the government on the potential health effects associated with PFAS exposure and to identify priority areas for further research. It's expected that the panel will provide its advice to the Minister for Health in late February 2018, later this month. I'm advised that the panel will be releasing its advice publicly soon after it's made available to the minister. The panel will also provide its advice on priority research areas to the National Health and Medical Research Council to inform their targeted call for research for these substances.

The Australian government is improving the understanding of the potential health effects related to PFAS exposure by undertaking a long-term epidemiological study, which is running concurrently with the voluntary blood-testing program. It will contribute an important body of evidence to an emerging area of research. The study will produce high-class information that will be available first and foremost to the community and the government, and this will help us make informed judgements about how to deal with this issue, rather than speculative judgements based on inadequate research.

The PFAS task force was established by the Prime Minister in December 2016, as we have heard, as part of the Commonwealth's response to develop a collaborative approach to manage PFAS contamination. The task force brought together Commonwealth agencies and state and territory governments to support greater consistency and the sharing of information. This oversight includes engaging and collaborating with relevant Commonwealth agencies, state and territory governments, and industry stakeholders.

Some of the contributions to the debate so far, particularly Senator Gallacher's, sought to suggest that the government is taking very little action on this. I think that's a very unfair characterisation to make. As I've mentioned already, there's the $12½ million research program and of course the much more tangible and direct measures to support the affected communities, which I want to spend a moment to talk about because, if you have been listening to the contributions to this debate so far, other than Senator McGrath's contribution, you may be under the misapprehension that the government has not done so.

There has been $55 million allocated to support the communities in Williamtown, New South Wales, and Oakey, Queensland, to reduce exposure, to manage environmental impacts and to provide additional dedicated mental health and counselling services. There is the voluntary blood-testing program and the study into the potential health effects from exposure, which I mentioned. In addition, $5.7 million has been provided to support the Katherine community through access to a voluntary blood-testing program, a study, and additional mental health and counselling services. There has been $15 million allocated to the national PFAS Remediation Research Program to support the development of innovative technologies to investigate and remediate PFAS contaminated areas, including soil and other solid contaminated debris, groundwater, waterways and marine systems.

An intergovernmental agreement on a national framework for responding to PFAS contamination, which has been developed with the states and territories, includes best practice guidance for all government agencies to effectively and efficiently manage PFAS contamination at any site. As senators have noted in this debate so far, this is a historical legacy issue that this government is now dealing with. The government is also contributing to the PFAS national environmental management plan, which has been developed cooperatively by the environmental agencies across Australia. There are activities to monitor and manage PFAS contamination at water sources, conduct research into soil solidification and stabilisation, conduct studies for PFAS uptake in plants, chicken and eggs, and provide alternative drinking water to the affected communities.

There is a comprehensive report by Food Standards Australia New Zealand that provides health-based guidance values for site investigations, a dietary exposure assessment, and risk management advice for authorities investigating PFAS contamination. There are ongoing detailed site investigations to determine the extent of spread of PFAS, and regular, transparent community engagement and consultation activities at sites where PFAS contamination has been detected to ensure that accurate and complete information is available to all the affected communities as soon as it becomes available.

The issue of compensation and the potential impact on people's personal financial situations, of course, has been mentioned. That's something that the PFAS task force is considering, and it has been meeting with a number of financial institutions in its effort to clarify the issues. They've provided to them the most current scientific information available on PFAS, including the nature of the chemicals and environmental concerns, and highlighted the lack of consistent scientific evidence on adverse human effects from PFAS exposure. As I said, this is a worthy issue for the Senate to be debating, but it should be done in a measured and sensible way.

Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank you, Senator Burston, for bringing this very important issue to the attention of the chamber this afternoon. Like many people in the Northern Territory, I find myself continually perplexed at the government's scattered response to PFAS.

As my colleagues know, I have spoken in this chamber many times about PFAS in Katherine in the Northern Territory. The Katherine community has been seriously impacted by chemical contamination of its water supply. Many of you will recall seeing the Four Corners program last year which told the stories of people in Katherine. People were shocked, worried and anxious. Understandably, the Katherine people are anxious about the widespread nature of the PFAS contamination and the unknown consequences of ingesting or recreationally coming into contact with PFAS.

We now all know the primary PFAS exposure pathway for humans is from drinking water. Other exposure routes can include eating foodstuffs produced from impacted land and water systems like fish, poultry, meat and vegetables. Katherine's bores and drinking supply are contaminated with traces of PFAS. Since the contamination was detected, Katherine residents were told not to drink the water. They faced water restrictions, have been told that they had to wait for blood tests and have had new water tanks installed. All of these things they took in their stride. They have been attending information sessions, but there is no clarity around when the announcement of blood tests will take place. This is of serious concern for the people of Katherine. I must let this Senate know, and certainly let the parliament know, that that delay is so unnecessary and is causing a great deal of anxiety.

For some context, when it comes to the lack of transparency around the government's response to PFAS in Katherine, the fact that the government can't or won't share information about them is nothing new. Regular calls for a single point of contact for PFAS on the ground in Katherine have gone unanswered. Since PFAS was found in Katherine, residents have been dealing with numerous government agencies. During estimates I was referred to Health, Defence and PM&C for answers. That's what I can do in here as the senator for the Northern Territory—be told to go to different agencies. But for people on the ground in our communities to be told to go from one bureaucracy to another bureaucracy to another bureaucracy to get the answers that they so desperately need has not been good for the people of Katherine.

In December last year, Katherine town council Mayor Fay Miller came to Canberra to meet with ministers regarding the response to PFAS and to look for some answers for the people of Katherine. As the people of Katherine have done, through their mayor in the Katherine town council, I certainly thanked the defence minister, Senator Payne, for responding with bottled water, installing water tanks and placing Defence contact points on the ground in Katherine. Also like the people of Katherine, though, I still have questions. Since PFAS was found in the water, the member for Katherine, Sandra Nelson, the member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, and I have repeatedly asked that the people of Katherine receive the same response to PFAS that other places around Australia have received.

More specifically, we echoed the calls for voluntary blood tests for people living in the affected areas. These calls for blood testing were belittled by the government. Residents were simply told to wait and that any blood test wouldn't really show much. We only have to look at the transcripts in Hansard to see the response to my numerous requests for these blood tests. The calls from residents were also ignored. I know, as do the people of Katherine, that the blood tests offered to others—to other families in other jurisdictions—were offered at the same time as other environmental testing was being undertaken. For anyone who wants to argue that point, I refer you again to the estimates Hansards. You only have to look at our record on the Hansard and the consistent questioning on this issue. If blood tests will give the people of Katherine some peace of mind and reduce anxiety and confusion, why does the government insist on denying them this process? Why are they denying the people of Katherine the process of blood testing?

On 3 December I was alerted to a joint announcement from Minister Scullion, Minister Hunt and Minister Payne that the people of Katherine would receive blood tests. We were certainly very pleased, particularly in the lead-up to Christmas and the end of the year, with the hope that this was the beginning of some important positive signals being sent to residents in the region. We were so pleased to hear this announcement and it was received with a great deal of hope. It was what the people of Katherine had asked for, and it was what I and my colleagues in the other House had been lobbying for within this parliament. They were finally going to receive this, and a $5.7 million support package was going to help this happen. The announcement was consistent with the services that are being provided to the communities of Williamtown in New South Wales and Oakey in Queensland. They are available to anyone who lives or works, or who has lived or worked, in the RAAF Base Tindal investigation area. The local member for Katherine, Sandra Nelson, said, 'After a year of lobbying and advocating, I am so relieved.' That was the immediate thought of so many people in Katherine. We were also told that the government would be commissioning the NT Primary Health Network to facilitate the voluntary blood-testing program with local GPs.

Eight weeks on from that announcement, here I am, still standing in the Senate, still calling on the federal government and still talking about the blood tests that the people of Katherine should have received by now. These are blood tests that people of Katherine should have been lining up for to make sure that they were being tested. It's been eight weeks since that announcement and not one blood drop has been taken. So the people of Katherine are still waiting.

On 2 February, the government's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Hobbs, said in a radio interview that the voluntary blood tests will now not be available until March. How is this possible? The people of Katherine have had 18 months of anxiety, and just before the end of last year they were given some sense of hope, and still there is delay upon delay. Dr Hobbs also said that a contract had not yet been signed with the primary health network, so there would be no government funded testing until that had happened. No contract signed! A radio interview is how Katherine residents are finding out about the rollout of the blood tests—or the absence of the rollout. The government made a commitment of a $5.7 million support package, and now they are again leaving Katherine residents in the dark about when this will happen. There is no timeline for when these tests will be made available to the Katherine residents. No-one wants to see medical services overloaded with a demand that they can't meet, and I have heard this is a barrier to opening up the blood tests immediately. But we have to ask the question: what is going to change in March? Will there be an increase in the number of doctors and nurses in Katherine to meet the demand? What will happen with the second and third rounds of blood tests?

Labor has consistently called for a national solution to PFAS contamination. We know that PFAS is a national problem that needs a national solution. The Turnbull government is certainly failing in this particular area, in terms of information about the timing of the promised blood tests. Its promised solution, announced in May, has yet to materialise. Labor will not allow this continual failure, and the absence of information for people who so desperately need reassurance—and they need confidence. They need to know that not only the government but also the Australian parliament are serious about this issue, which is impacting some of the most vulnerable people in our country and in our regions.

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

PFAS is certainly a problem. After doing a bit of research on it: PFAS has been used for over 50 years in Australia and globally in a range of industrial, medical and consumer products including cosmetics, sunscreens, rubber, plastic, insecticides, non-stick frying pans—you name it. They are now so widespread that almost every person on earth has been exposed to PFAS and has PFAS in their blood. There is some good news here: we know that these chemicals can persist in human, animals and the environment, but there's currently no consistent evidence that PFAS are harmful to human health. I hope that's the case. We do know that the human body gets rid of PFAS over time. That's also a good advantage. So, once exposure is reduced or stopped, any PFAS in the body will reduce; I'm not sure over what period of time. This is why the $12.5 million national research program into the human health effects of prolonged exposure to PFAS was undertaken, in places such as Oakey, Williamtown and Katherine, in a best-practice study to better understand if there are any long-term human health impacts. Some human health studies have found an association between exposure to these chemicals and health effects, and others have not. In addition, the studies that found an association were not able to determine with certainty whether the health effects were caused by the chemical being studied or by other factors, such as smoking. More research is required before definitive statements can be made on causality or risk—which is what we are doing.

I'm very pleased to say that the Department of Health has established an expert health panel to advise the Australian government on the potential health impacts associated with PFAS exposure and to identify priority areas for further research. It is expected that the panel will provide its advice to the Minister for Health late this month. The panel's advice will be released publicly soon after. The panel will also provide its advice on priority research areas to the National Health and Medical Research Council to inform their targeted call for research for the Per- And Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances—National Health Research Program.

The PFAS Taskforce was established by the Prime Minister in December 2016 as part of the Commonwealth's response to develop a collaborative approach to manage PFAS contamination. The task force brought together Commonwealth agencies and state and territory governments to support greater consistency and sharing of information. This is important—to share the information between the Commonwealth agencies and state and territory governments. Because of the complexity and breadth of the issue, the Commonwealth response to PFAS will still require coordination and oversight for a considerable time to come. Senator Burston put a question to Minister Payne last week, and Minister Payne replied, 'This is a very complicated issue.' I can see now why it is. This oversight includes engaging and collaborating with relevant Commonwealth agencies, state and territory governments, and industry stakeholders.

Let's talk about some of the actions being carried out. Because of the wide variety of potential source points, this is an issue for all levels of government—federal, state and council—and not just military bases. It is also airports, state firefighting training facilities, rural firefighting training facilities, local dumps and private industrial industries in the chemical and oil industries. This is why a nationally consistent approach for responding to PFAS contamination is being considered by COAG to ensure all levels of government cooperate for the benefit of all communities across Australia. This is why it is now a standing item on the COAG agenda.

The full extent of PFAS contamination across the Commonwealth estate is still being determined. It is essential that any action by the Commonwealth be very clearly based on evidence, proportionate to the level of risk, and fiscally sustainable into the future for all governments and private industry. I'm very pleased to hear of the government putting taxpayers' money into water supplies—I'm talking mainly of the towns around Williamtown—into town water, and, as Senator McCarthy said, into establishing rainwater tanks for drinking, and even bottled water in places like Katherine.

This is a very serious issue. The PFAS task force also met with organisations including the Australian Bankers' Association, the Customer Owned Banking Association, Westpac, ANZ, CBA, NAB and the Insurance Council of Australia. The task force provided these key organisations with the most current scientific information on PFAS, including many other issues.

Chris Ketter (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time for the discussion has expired.