Page 2077 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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The work of the task force over the past four weeks has focused on, as a priority, responding to the needs of families currently living in a home affected by loose-fill asbestos, providing ongoing information to the broader Canberra community and providing advice to the ACT government on the long-term solution. I am hoping to have that advice this month.
Yesterday I was asked, “Where is that advice leading?” I have not seen the final advice; it is not even finished yet. This was my answer yesterday: from the briefings I have had to date and from the advice that I have had verbally, it is increasingly looking like demolition of houses will be recommended. I answered that question from the journalist when I was directly asked.
I would just say, though, that the government’s final decision on this might not be a one-size-fits-all for everybody, because within the Mr Fluffy homes there are a range of different views. In fact, I got a very heartfelt email just this morning from someone who does not want their home demolished and does not want to be put in the position where they are incorporated into a big job lot in a sense. The response from the government, when we do finalise these decisions, will, as much as we can, respect the wishes and desires of the Mr Fluffy home owners themselves. It may be that there is not a one-size-fits-all. As we know, everybody’s circumstances are different.
In terms of response to the task force—and I preface these comments by saying how hard the task force is working—in the last couple of weeks there has been a surge in registrations. We have gone from no registrations to, I think, 1,800, towards 2,000 registrations. The IT systems to support that are gradually being put in place. That will ease the frustration of people having to tell their story once, twice or three times. Hopefully we can address that with the IT systems that are being put in to support people.
The effect of the sending out of the registered mail was a spike in the number of people, particularly a lot of people who did not know they were in a Mr Fluffy home, who were quite distressed. That did have a spike in the workload of the task force and, I think, did affect the timeliness of their responses as they worked through them all.
As members would know, there are 27 families who have been advised to leave their homes due to contamination, and those 27 families require intensive support by the task force. This includes the families finding short-term accommodation so that they have at least a roof over their head as they work through the fact that they may not have a home they can return to.
The task force has been up-front in telling those registering with them that the immediate focus must be on the current residents of affected homes. In fact, this advice was outlined in the task force’s latest newsletter, which is sent weekly to all of those who registered. This does not underestimate the level of concern about this issue in the community but it does prioritise the work of the task force.
If I could just say, to give another example, last week, when the documents were provided to some media outlets raising concerns about Northbourne House—and this
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