Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise a grave matter affecting my electorate. Last Monday, Orica accidentally released 10 kilograms of hexavalent chromium, which spread over the neighbouring suburb of Stockton. Orica manufactures ammonium nitrate and nitric acid. It is an inherently dangerous business. In Newcastle we understand that, but regrettably we now better understand the health impacts of this toxic chemical, well chronicled in the film Erin Brockovich.

According to the New South Wales Department of Health prolonged exposure can cause cancer, including lung, gastrointestinal and stomach cancer. One would assume then that both Orica and the New South Wales government would immediately act to notify affected citizens and provide advice on precautions to take if a leak occurred. Such faith has proved to be misplaced. The people of Newcastle are justifiably irate. It took Orica 16 hours to inform the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage of the leak, which had occurred for about half an hour before Orica either detected or realised the full nature and extent of the leak. We remain unsure of the exact circumstances.

Compounding this failure it took the New South Wales Minister for the Environment, Robyn Parker, an inexcusable 56 hours to notify the public and explain what precautions affected residents should take—three days for the minister to do her job. Stockton residents are outraged by this incompetence. Living side by side with major polluting and dangerous industries for decades, residents have done their job and attempted to build genuine relationships and consultative processes with their corporate neighbours and the state. Now they feel betrayed. What justification can there be for waiting 56 hours to advise residents to prevent their children from playing in gardens, not to eat home-grown leafy vegetables or fruit, not to drink water from rainwater tanks, to wash all home-grown root vegetables, to wash down surfaces and to drain swimming pools?

After blame shifting and buck passing between Premier O'Farrell and Minister Parker they now lay the blame at the feet of Orica, who, in fact, notified within the requisite but unacceptable 24-hour period. There are legitimate questions to be asked about Orica's notification delay and the proper fulfilment of their duty of care to employees and residents, but the facts are that it took the New South Wales government three times longer to notify the public than it took Orica to notify the New South Wales government. Kate Johnson, on behalf of concerned citizens of Stockton, has written an open letter to Orica asking why it took so long for the community to be notified, how the impact area was defined, what Orica's emergency incident response plan is and whether it was abided by. They want answers and genuine engagement on this incident.

Today it has been reported that the impact area was five times larger than previously admitted by the New South Wales government, causing even more uncertainty and anger among Stockton residents. That ignorance and uncertainty remains over a week after the incident and demonstrates how poorly this issue has been handled. It is not just Orica that needs to come clean. The O'Farrell government has some serious explaining to do. It is difficult not to conclude that Premier O'Farrell's recent downgrading of the role of the Minister for the Environment contributed to this fiasco. Under changes he introduced after his election, the director-general of the Department of the Environment now reports directly to the Premier's own portfolio, supposedly so that environmental issues would 'be given immediate and direct attention by the Premier'. That certainly did not happen in this case. With an environment department that no longer reports to the environment minister, it is no wonder that dangerous blunders like this have occurred.

The O'Farrell government has failed in its most basic obligations to the people of Newcastle. A full and independent inquiry into this incident, as proposed by New South Wales opposition leader John Robertson and shadow environment spokesperson Luke Foley, is urgently required. But in my view more needs to be done and it needs to be done now. There needs to be an immediate, thorough risk assessment of all the activities undertaken on Kooragang and in the Port of Newcastle, and an appraisal of their current and potential individual and cumulative health impacts. There need to be 24/7 air and water quality monitoring, and alert and notification systems in place. And the adequacy of the provisions and enforcement practices under the New South Wales Environmental Protection Act should be urgently reviewed.

Eastern Star Gas has recently applied to locate a plant next door to Orica. It is this type of potentially explosive combination in a critical incident that needs proper appraisal under a proper industrial risk assessment framework. As the Newcastle Herald rightly pointed out today, we are no strangers to industrial risk in Newcastle. Currently BHP Billiton are spending over three-quarters of a billion dollars remediating toxic waste from the former BHP steelworks site and adjoining Hunter river. Let us not repeat the failures of the past. Let us be proactive and manage industrial risks properly now. I sincerely hope that this toxic leak will prove benign and that no resident's health will be affected. But I also hope that something better will come from this critical incident and the failure of the O'Farrell government. (Time expired)

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 10.30 pm, the debate is interrupted.

House adjourned at 22:30