Page 4324 - Week 13 - Thursday, 4 December 2014
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Part of the healing process for those affected will be to find out what went wrong. Indeed, to make sure that it does not happen again in some other way, this needs to be done expeditiously so that we can learn from any errors that were made. There was clear advice in 2005. A number of submissions brought that to our attention, saying, “Look, they knew that but they did nothing about it.” So those questions need to be answered, just for the personal healing of individuals affected. I would ask that the government reconsider 58.
With respect to recommendation 59, members might not be aware that there is an inquiry being run—I think it is chaired by Fred Nile from the upper house of the New South Wales parliament—into asbestos now. They were to report early next year on asbestos in New South Wales. I understand they now intend to report before Christmas. Recommendation 59 says that, when that inquiry has reported and when our review is done, they be forwarded to the commonwealth “with a view to a suitable and robust inquiry being established to investigate the full history”.
That is really the only way it can happen. We can feed into something that the feds might do, but let us give them the evidence. New South Wales has done its inquiry in quite a short time frame—and it may be a different issue to a full inquiry under our Inquiries Act. But let us get this going. Let us make sure it happens so that (1) we can get healing for those affected and (2) we can find out what went wrong so that we do not make those sorts of mistakes into the future.
On recommendation 58 the government response is “not agreed”. They do not want to start. It is up to the government to tell us where and when they will do it. I am sure those on this side will consider that and think about what they might respond to.
On recommendation 59 the government response is “noted”. The response reads:
The Government’s and the Taskforce’s immediate focus is on implementation of the Scheme.
I reiterate that part of the healing will only come with answers. Recommendation 60 states:
The Committee recommends that given the size and scale of the asbestos legacy transferred to the Territory at the time of self‐government, that a suitable inquiry mechanism be established to investigate the full history of various levels of government in the matter—Commonwealth and the ACT.
We can actually have joint committees. The federal parliamentary public accounts committee and the ACT public accounts committee, for instance, could do a combined inquiry. I am not sure what the New South Wales standing orders allow, but perhaps their body could join in and we could have a tri-jurisdictional inquiry, so that we work this out. I have heard rumours that some of this Mr Fluffy material may have got to homes in Queensland. If they need to be involved then so they should be. But we need to work this out and we need to stop dilly-dallying on it.
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