Page 895 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Tourism and Events and Minister for Urban Renewal) (5.05): The motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition today demonstrates a continued unwillingness to understand the complexity of the Mr Fluffy asbestos legacy for Canberra. More disappointingly, it shows once again that he is happy to let the commonwealth coalition government off the hook yet again; he lets them wash their hands of any responsibility for Canberra and the affected residents. He is willing to wipe their role from history by proposing terms of reference today that only allow an inquiry into a period commencing in 1989, just as he has acquiesced to them in refusing to honour their commitment to co-fund the clean-up.
He neglects to mention in his contribution that when the billion-dollar price tag was settled to finally resolve this issue, at an expected net cost to our community of $400 million, the commonwealth did not meet its obligations to the territory, moral and otherwise. It did nothing to support affected residents and it did nothing to support the ACT government to achieve a just outcome.
That is why the territory government has stepped in and borne this cost, which we need to pay back with interest as a loan to the commonwealth. This motion shows a further complete lack of regard for the process agreed to by the Assembly when we debated this same issue just 3½ months ago. Indeed Mr Hanson seems to have forgotten that debate in even framing this motion this afternoon. For these reasons the government will not be supporting his motion in its current form. I have circulated an amendment in my name, which I now move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes:
(a) in the Government response to the Assembly Standing Committee on Public Accounts’ inquiry into the proposed Appropriation (Loose-fill Asbestos Insulation Eradication) Bill 2014-2015, the ACT Government noted the need to consider the full history of the Mr Fluffy legacy;
(b) the ACT Government, through the Asbestos Response Taskforce, is currently responding to the Mr Fluffy crisis, that many Fluffy owners remain in their homes, that the demolition process has only just begun, and that it will take up to five years to rid the ACT of the toxic Mr Fluffy legacy;
(c) an inquiry launched immediately would mean substantial distraction to the work of, and diversion of resources from, the Asbestos Response Taskforce, cost many millions of dollars, and delay the implementation of the Government’s response at the expense of those directly affected by Mr Fluffy;
(d) the Mr Fluffy legacy extends back to 1968, well before self-government in the ACT, and that the Commonwealth Government has played a central role in the Mr Fluffy legacy;
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