Page 4310 - Week 13 - Thursday, 4 December 2014
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We are extremely conscious of the distress and the upset that this issue—and some elements of this policy and indeed this very debate—continue to cause for some in our community. Every public meeting, every media report, every rumour and accusation have occurred in, and sometimes fed, an environment of anxiety and worry.
In passing the bill today, the Assembly can bring a good deal of this to an end. We can do justice to the extraordinary strength and resilience shown by Mr Fluffy owners and residents this year by offering them a safe, fair and certain future. With the passage of the bill, from next week the Asbestos Response Taskforce will be able to begin progressing buyback offers for the 1,021 Mr Fluffy homes. These are beloved family homes, and this process will bring great sadness. But the fact remains that they are not safe, nor can they be made so. In around 10 per cent of houses contamination is so bad that they are uninhabitable. Fibres have been detected in the living areas of between 50 and 60 per cent of houses, sometimes in visible quantities; in the rest we know that fibres populate the walls, the roof and the subfloor.
There have been no easy choices in seeking to correct the tragic failures of the past. Forty-six years ago, well before self-government for the ACT was even contemplated, the commonwealth had the opportunity to prevent pure asbestos being pumped into the ceilings of Canberra homes. The risks were known; clear advice was provided. That opportunity was missed. In the late 1980s the commonwealth recognised the danger and designed a remediation program that aimed to remove visible and accessible asbestos insulation from affected homes. Consideration was given at the time to demolishing the affected houses, and that opportunity, too, was missed.
In September this year the ACT government asked the commonwealth to honour the memorandum of understanding which dictated that future costs in relation to these homes be shared as they were during the remediation program. We kept their confidence, made every effort to assist their deliberations, and sought to reassure many desperate families that a cooperative solution was imminent. The response to our request came in the form of a cabinet leak.
Notwithstanding this, the response of the ACT government has now been internationally recognised as “the only enduring solution to the ongoing risk posed by loose fill asbestos insulation”. This same response is now sought by owners of affected houses in New South Wales, who are yet to receive assistance beyond a testing program.
We have acted quickly and decisively as evidence has mounted in the course of this year. While the timing of the scheme’s announcement was forced upon us, its development has been thorough and consultative. We have taken into account the views expressed by individual families in their meetings with the task force and in correspondence and meetings with me. We have sought the views of the Community and Expert Reference Group. We have heard the suggestions advanced by the Fluffy Owners and Residents Action Group and many other individuals affected who are not represented by that group. We have consulted national asbestos experts, industry groups and unions; we have engaged community groups. And we will continue to do these things as the scheme moves further into the implementation phase.
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