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

Tomorrow in Darwin I will be meeting with veterans and their families. Not only is it Remembrance Day, it is also an important opportunity for me to speak with those members of our community about issues that are important to us. One of the things they are going to be asking me about is the contamination coming out of some of our Defence bases. The Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel, many months ago, way back in May, said there was no interest in having any blood testing for people who are extremely worried about the impact of this on their lives and the lives of their kids and families.

Did he do anything about it? What happened is that it took four months to release the results and to tell the community what happened. And do the families of Darwin and Palmerston now understand what the results mean for them? Do they understand what they can do and whether they can still go fishing in the creeks and rivers that come from RAAF Base Darwin and Robertson Barracks?—no. No explanation has been gone into, and we do really know what the various ministers of defence are doing in relation to this issue.

It is about time that Malcolm Turnbull stood up and got these defence ministers to start doing their day jobs and to inform our communities of what is happening with this contamination issue.