Page 2080 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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As the minister responsible for the best part of the last 12 months in particular when it comes to this matter, I am very pleased to see the comprehensive response that has been put in place by the government as our knowledge and understanding of the difficulties faced by property owners who have remnant loose-fill asbestos material in their homes has become more and more apparent.
I do not think anyone within the government fully anticipated the extent and the complexity of the issues that were emerging in relation to the remnant Mr Fluffy properties at the time when the initial advice was provided to householders by the government back in February this year.
What we did see following that advice going to householders in February of this year was a slow but growing level of concern, anxiety and stress associated with the realisation that many, many more homes than had ever really been seriously contemplated were continuing to be contaminated to an extent that, in many instances, was not safe or practical for those homes to continue to be occupied.
The government has worked very hard at responding to issues as and when they have become evident. I want to particularly thank Mr Andrew Kefford and his team for their work. The core of the team is largely based on a team of ACT public servants employed in the Office of Industrial Relations when I was the responsible minister. They have really driven this process forward. Their advice, their knowledge and their empathy with the circumstances faced by householders I think is critical as we continue to work towards a permanent resolution of this issue. I am grateful that they are lending their passion and lending their expertise to this task in the dedicated way that is now possible.
I am very conscious that for a number of months as we led up to the establishment of the asbestos response task force almost the entire work of the Office of Industrial Relations was on this issue alone and that there was no capacity for them to really properly do their other work in terms of industrial relations policy development and issues, and response and advice to government and the broader community.
That put some very significant strains on the capacity of this small, dedicated team of people. So I want to thank them for the advice they have given me and the assistance they have provided to me as the responsible minister at the time and commend them for that work and for the very important work they are continuing to do now. Many of them are within the asbestos response task force itself.
This is a fiendishly complex and difficult issue. There are not many urban areas in the world—in fact, it would be fair to say that Canberra is almost unique, if not unique, amongst urban areas globally—that have this level of penetration of loose-fill asbestos fluff or product fibre in residential properties. So our response is suitably going to also have to be fit for purpose for these very unique circumstances.
The challenge, of course, for householders is that so many of them are faced with a circumstance where their one key asset has been seriously compromised in terms of its financial value. Obviously for many of us in the community, and certainly for
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