Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was an honour last Friday to represent the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education, the Hon. Scott Ryan, at the opening of Trinity Christian School's new facilities at their campus in Wanniassa. The Australian government contributed a grant of $600,000 under the capital grants program and the Trinity Christian School contributed $3.39 million. The funding mainly came from the school community, which shows the strength of the community and dedication of the students' families to their children's education. It is a great example of a partnership between the community and government. The project involved the demolition of the old administration building and the construction of a new building comprising an administration area and student hub.

I would particularly like to congratulate: the principal, Andrew Clayton; the principal's assistant, Louise Deck; the former principal, who was there and had much of the vision for the buildings, Carl Palmer, and his wife, Jennie; the deputy principal, Jason Ward; and the chair of Trinity Christian School Council, Mark LeCouteur. They were all instrumental in the building of the new facilities and the opening on Friday.

I would also like to comment on how impressed I was by the school captains, Kyle Steemson and Lara Sweeney. They were a positive reflection of how an encouraging school environment can produce articulate and mature young adults. In fact, I was very impressed by all of the students at Trinity, from kindergarten to year 12, who participated in the opening ceremony. Their parents can be very proud of them as students and Trinity's school community can be very proud of them as well. Trinity is a wonderful school community in the south of Canberra and I pay tribute to the wonderful contribution it makes to education in the ACT.

I would like to highlight another issue. This was on the front page of TheCanberra Times today. The headline was: 'Revealed: Timber treatment plant's toxic legacy'. I am sure this would be a concern to many Canberrans. The article by Christopher Knaus said:

A multinational corporation was allowed to pollute Canberra water with toxic chemicals in a case exposing more than a decade of failings by ACT authorities.

Koppers Wood Products' timber treatment plant in Hume caused hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen made infamous by environmental activist Erin Brockovich, to leach into groundwater at up to 2430 times the safe limit by 2007.

Importantly, the article goes on to say:

A Fairfax investigation has found the ACT government, despite knowing of the pollution, obtained no independent tests in the past seven years to ensure the carcinogens have not spread from the now mostly vacant 20-hectare site.

This is a major concern. As a government that often touts its environmental credentials, is in coalition with the Greens and talks about 90 per cent targets for renewable energy, most Canberrans would expect that it would get the basics right when it comes to environmental protection. Most Canberrans would expect that a government would treat very seriously the potential of serious toxins leaching into our waterways. This is a serious potential failing by the ACT Labor government. They are in coalition with the Greens. There is a Greens minister in the ACT.

I have spoken to and written to the federal Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, asking that he get a briefing on this issue. There were concerns raised in the article about the fact that this is close to a tributary of Jerrabomberra Creek, which flows into Lake Burley Griffin, making it a potential issue for the national government. Whether that has happened we do not know, but we do know that the government did not do the checks for many years despite being aware of this pollution. That is unacceptable and I think most Canberrans would find that unacceptable. We expect our local government to get that sort of thing right. It is legitimate that we look very closely at how this was allowed to happen.

I note that the Greens minister in the ACT government, Shane Rattenbury, says he will push for stronger laws, but you have to ask the question. This has been a Greens-Labor government for the last five years. This is not a question of there not being sufficient laws and sufficient enforcement powers. It appears to be an example of where a government has not used its laws to look after the environment and ensure that we do not see serious pollutants getting into our waterways. I draw this to the attention of the Senate and call on the ACT government to demonstrate very quickly how it is going to fix this issue and how it will ensure these sorts of things do not happen in the future.