Page 2075 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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As others have outlined already, the task force is administering a financial assistance package to help affected families. It is providing community information and, of course, it is providing advice on a longer term solution to this crisis. I also want to note the counselling support that the task force is providing to affected families that might need psychological and emotional support during this difficult period. ACT Medicare Local is assisting, and families will not have to pay to access relevant support programs. I believe this is an important addition to the package, as sometimes people underestimate the mental and emotional anguish and toll that people can suffer from an incident like this. The stress of displacement from one’s own home or the fear and uncertainty that the family could be facing an unknown health risk can be severe.
It is clear that the federal government needs to play a major role in responding to this issue. I think it is clear to all stakeholders that the commonwealth is a key part of the legacy. It administered the ACT during the time Mr Fluffy was operating, and it was responsible for administering the remediation program which, we now discover, was inadequate in various ways. It has an obligation, most likely legal and certainly moral, to help the affected people and to help the ACT in dealing with the problems it handed down to us.
Just as my colleagues in the Liberal Party and Labor Party have done, I have taken the opportunity to update my Greens colleagues in the federal parliament on the Mr Fluffy issue and the need for the federal government to be involved. I think it is important that the Greens senators and member are apprised of the issue and are aware of the necessity of commonwealth involvement in assisting the ACT to deal with the significant legacy with which we find ourselves.
As we know, the asbestos legacy left by the commonwealth also extends to large amounts of bonded asbestos buried underground around Canberra. It is unmapped, so the territory constantly discovers it and must deal with it as it develops and builds around our city. That is another issue that would benefit from commonwealth cooperation and is an ongoing area of negotiation.
A range of very important decisions are still to be made to find good solutions to this toxic legacy, and I have no doubt that the wait for answers is torturous for those involved. However, the ACT government has made clear that it is committed to providing long-term support to affected families. It has established a community and expert reference group, similar to the one established for the bushfire task force in 2003.
I assure the Assembly and the community that in my roles as an MLA and as a minister I will be following the issue closely and doing all I can to ensure an appropriate and just outcome. I have seen the amendment that Ms Porter has proposed to Mr Hanson’s motion, and I agree that it combines the two motions appropriately. I understand we have agreement across the Assembly that this is a good way to proceed, and I welcome both that collaboration and the spirit of the discussion today.
In closing, I simply observe that we have much left to do on this issue and that we all need to keep a very clear focus on it so we can deliver a fair outcome, a just outcome and certainty for those people who are affected by this issue.
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