Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on behalf of my constituents in the Williamtown, Salt Ash and Fullerton Cove areas whose lives have been devastated by ongoing PFAS contamination through absolutely no fault of their own. In December last year, Labor and the Greens successfully put forward a Senate motion calling on the Turnbull government to stop contamination from coming from RAAF base Williamtown in my electorate. We demanded that the government explain what consideration had been given to understanding and addressing any financial impacts on affected businesses and individuals. Yesterday, the deadline came and went. My constituents scoured the public domain searching in vain for a long-promised solution to their suffering. It wasn't there.

The saddest thing is that, despite all they've been through—the years now of inaction, the promised but not delivered rescue plans, the cover-ups and conflicts, the stress of navigating various levels of government—many of my people were actually still expecting something from Senator James McGrath and his PFAS task force. They were hoping against hope that Senator Marise Payne and the Department of Defence might do the right thing, accept accountability and clean up their mess. They were expecting something from their Prime Minister, something from their government. Instead, the people of Williamtown and surrounds received an insult—a piece of spin tabled after the deadline, where the government rattled through a list of things it has spent almost $100 million on across the country but conveniently neglected to address the fact that there are hundreds of people trapped on contaminated land who have no way out.

These people have grave fears for their financial futures. They have grave fears for their health due to the much publicised connections that have been made between PFAS and the human immune system and rates of cancer, and their mental health is under siege. In short, my community is on the edge. As one resident put to me during a meeting in my office last month: 'Meryl, this is not living; it is just existing.' Families are frightened. They're frightened of their land and the produce that they used to be able to grow and consume but no longer can. They're frightened of the very puddles that appear on the ground.

I call upon the Prime Minister—in fact, I am begging the Prime Minister and this government—to intervene immediately. Remove the Department of Defence from any future investigations; accept that these are human beings whose lives, hopes and futures have been decimated. The federal government must act now to create choices and options for those who are caught up in this diabolical mess.