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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4212 ..

The question before us is: what should we be doing to prevent further exposure of Canberrans to asbestos fibres? Mrs Cross originally introduced a bill that would require every person to prepare a report on the current status of asbestos in a property before that property could be sold or leased. That initial proposal set up a whole host of discussions and ideas throughout the Assembly, the government and the community. I think it has been quite useful that we have been able to have this debate to get those ideas out there, because there are many questions about just having a report on a house when it is put up for sale or for lease, in that it does not deal with the issue of home renovators; it does not deal with the issue of public space, as it were. I am very glad that we have had the time to broaden the scope of this discussion to look beyond that, I guess, almost very narrow approach.

We have been able to put forward a more comprehensive response to that whole issue that we are talking about today, that is, asbestos, and how we deal with the fact that asbestos kills and exists in our community. I know the government has been putting quite a lot of work into responding to this legislation, and I particularly welcome their suggestions of a legislated task force and an ongoing education campaign. It is essential that the outcomes of this piece of legislation are as broad and as comprehensive as possible, as there is certainly a lot of time to make up for. We have the opportunity before us today to make up for the work that was missed out on being undertaken 15 years ago.

I think a whole-of-government task force will be a useful addition, as the simple fact is that we do not have all the data on where asbestos is located and in what condition that asbestos is. The information that we do have is not available in any coordinated or accessible form. So I think we need to realise that, while it is important to do as much as possible here tonight, there is additional information that may help inform our response into the future. I think the task force will add to our knowledge of the extent to which asbestos is a threat to Canberrans, and hopefully the education campaign will raise awareness in the community and lead to an even greater disclosure of asbestos risks. Hopefully we will be able to target those home renovators who are not thinking about selling their houses but are thinking of renovating and, through an education campaign, actually make them aware of the issues so that they can work to protect themselves and their families.

I truly respect the amount of work that has been done by all members of this Assembly in just 20 days. I think that needs to be acknowledged. It has only been 21 days since this piece of legislation was initially tabled and, through two sitting weeks, we have been able to, I think, come up with some very good proposals that will move this debate forward and actually have a positive effect into the community. So I would like to acknowledge the work that has been done by members of this place, by the support staff in our offices, and of course by the members of the community who are deeply affected by this issue. The input that they have been able to have to this debate has been most welcome.

It is important to remember that a whole generation of Canberrans has grown up without any awareness of the continuing asbestos problem. Asbestos was banned before they were born or was banned when they were children, and they are not aware of the issues. Many people forget things over time. It is, I think, quite important that we are now

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