Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table the Fluffy Owners and Residents' Action Group impact statement, 'Hope in grief: confronting Mr Fluffy's toxic legacy in Canberra and Queanbeyan'.

Leave granted.

For people outside the ACT, the name Mr Fluffy probably calls to mind something fun and frivolous. But fun and frivolity have been pretty scarce over the last few years for the Canberra families who discovered their homes had been pumped full of crushed raw asbestos by a dodgy contractor trading under the name Mr Fluffy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mr Fluffy pumped the toxic material into the walls and roof cavities of over a thousand homes across the ACT and Queanbeyan as insulation against the Canberra cold. Although it was only in business for a few short years, it left a potentially deadly legacy scattered through our community.

Today it is clear that none of the Mr Fluffy homes is safe to live in. Every single one must be demolished to protect the owners and the surrounding community from the risk of exposure to deadly asbestos fibres. The families affected by this calamity, some of whom are here in the chamber today, will see their treasured homes reduced to rubble. As if that were not painful enough, they also face years of uncertainty as they wait to find out whether anyone they love will fall sick from asbestos exposure.

The statement I am tabling today tells these families' stories in their own words and with no filter over the raw grief, loss and worry that so many feel. I would like to share with the House just two stories which express the intense heartache created by this discovery. Sixty-six-year-old Christine from Ainslie writes:

I love my home: it is filled with a lifetime of our family's memories. I despair over having to leave my community where I attend church, volunteer at the local primary school and have the love and support of my friends and neighbours.

Christine, we are all so sorry for your loss. Then there is Matt from Duffy. His anger and frustration practically leap from the page when he writes:

My wife and I had also thought about having another child but now we're too scared: not only because of all the stress and fear we have at the moment, or bringing another child into a home that is dangerous, but also because financiallywe can afford another child …

I urge members opposite to read the full impact statement and then ask yourselves: has the government really done all it can do to support the Mr Fluffy families in Canberra and Queanbeyan? To all the families who shared stories for this statement—Janet and Mike Ilchef, Rhonda Fleming, Elisa Thompson, Lisa Ziolkowski, Nathan Hitchcock, Chris Pilkington, Petra Wiesner, Chris Brown, Fiona Matz, Luke Brown, Kim Grant, Felicity Anne Prideaux, Becc Rohrlach, Annabel Yagos, Tim and Brianna Heseltine, Jorge Woods and Mike Desmond—thank you, and your community is here with you.