Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Bowman and our NT senator, Malarndirri McCarthy, for their work on this important inquiry into the management of PFAS contamination, an issue that has affected and continues to affect my electorate of Solomon. I also want to acknowledge and thank all those who attended the various hearings of the inquiry and gave evidence, including, of course, the families, organisations and individuals from the Northern Territory and from my electorate of Solomon. I'm proud that Labor has led the way when it comes to standing up for communities affected by PFAS contamination, and I acknowledge all the members who are fighting for their communities. I particularly want to mention the members for Lingiari, Paterson, Newcastle, Herbert, Blair, Macquarie—and other members—as well as the unions representing the firefighters who have been exposed to these chemicals over many years. I want to acknowledge Peter Marshall from the United Firefighters Union, representing our airport firies in my electorate, Erina Early from United Voice, and all the other unions around the country that are representing firefighters.

The NT senator Malarndirri McCarthy has been working alongside the local member of the legislative assembly in the NT, Sandra Nelson, who has been advocating very strongly for her community of Katherine, which is where the Tindal Air Force base is. So I want to acknowledge Sandra and also the Katherine mayor, Fay Miller, who has also been taking up the fight and really advocating hard to the federal government.

The electorate that I represent, Solomon, incorporates the Darwin RAAF Base, so PFAS and PFOA contamination has become an issue for us. The waterways coming off the Darwin RAAF Base, right in the centre of Darwin there, in particular Rapid Creek and Ludmilla Creek but also Sadgroves Creek—there's been testing throughout those creeks. The investigation area, where flow has come off that RAAF base, extends from down in Bayview and Stuart Park all the way around the coast to Millner and the suburb of Rapid Creek, where the beautiful Rapid Creek spills out into Darwin Harbour. That area of land covers a massive swathe of my electorate and, although our test results are better—that is, less contamination—than, say, the city of Katherine, near the Tindal air base, there was still PFAS detected in our waterways, soils and seafood. They're small amounts but still something that we take seriously.

Rapid Creek and Ludmilla Creek in particular have long been popular spots with locals for fishing and swimming. Because Rapid Creek is quite close to the airport, there have been Aboriginal Territorians who have camped in the bush by Rapid Creek for decades, just a stone's throw from the airport, and have drunk that water, living right there on the creek. So I was very keen to get the word out, right from the outset, when we found out about the PFAS, when the Department of Defence reported the issue. As members would know, it was known about for some time before that, which is unfortunate, but we are where we are. But when I became aware of this, I talked to the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal community and made sure that warnings were given to people living along that creek as soon as possible and also to the men, women, kids and families who had been fishing in those creeks. So the warnings went out, and the testing regime started.

I want to acknowledge the work of the NT government, whose departments got to work making sure that testing regimes were put in place, and I want to acknowledge those members of the Darwin community for their vigilance on this issue and their advocacy in making sure that we not only got the testing done but that we got action. Through them and through our advocacy, we got this report, which has meant that we've got some good recommendations to move forward with.

Defence, from my point of view, did pretty well. There were information stands at big events. There were evening information sessions. Once I put the commander of our RAAF base in touch with the Aboriginal community, they acted quite quickly to establish contact and make sure that the Aboriginal organisation in my electorate got information out to those who were staying along the creek. That was done pretty quickly. It's a credit to those organisations, and it's actually increased the contact and communication between those two important organisations for our city.

Obviously, not everyone can be reached through traditional media. That's why it was important for people to get out onto the ground, talk with people face to face, give the latest information and answer questions. So I do want to acknowledge that work from Defence. I did hear from one of the other members that the information about some of these sessions may not have been made available as widely as possible in other electorates. That is obviously something that they must continue to work on. But my experience has been that they've been generally very open and honest about their work with the community.

The committee's report is comprehensive and makes a number of recommendations. I want to once more commend the work of the NT senator my friend Senator Malarndirri McCarthy and all those other members whose electorates are affected.

Finally, I want to echo the advice I've given in the past to members of my electorate about what is a goer and what is not a goer in terms of fishing and collecting shellfish in my electorate of Solomon. For fishing in Darwin creeks, there has been PFAS detected—albeit small. So people in Darwin—around Rapid Creek and Ludmilla Creek, in particular—should continue to avoid catching and eating freshwater fish from Rapid Creek. However, normal serves—two a week—of our wonderful seafood, prawns and crab can still continue to be eaten from those waterways. So it is good news that our constituents can continue to do what they have done for a long time, and that's eat shellfish out of the estuary side of these creeks. But, again, avoid fish from the freshwater end because, without the cleansing of our beautiful Darwin Harbour, they continue to be too much of a risk.

I want to finally acknowledge everyone who is working so hard on this very difficult issue. I do feel for those electorates that this really serious issue of PFAS contamination has affected and wish those communities all the best. We will continue to make sure that the people of Darwin and Palmerston have the best possible information.

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