Page 903 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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Continuing, the article said:
Critically, she was asked to raise far greater awareness around Mr Fluffy insulation among affected home owners.
Mr Fluffy residents were issued just one formal letter under Ms Gallagher during the past nine years regarding the asbestos.
The minister was told by reports commissioned by the government that she needed to put in place stronger protections, that there needed to be regular warnings. We got one letter. The article continued:
It wasn’t until February this year—
that is, 2014—
that the government wrote directly to owners …
And, if you remember, that was not even directly to home owners; that was a letter to the household—or to the home owner; I cannot quite remember. But it was a generic, unaddressed letter.
The article continued:
In 1993, the Follett government sent its first letter to Mr Fluffy homes to warn them of remnant asbestos at the conclusion of the Commonwealth clean-up.
… internal correspondence shows it bowed to then Mr Fluffy owners, who “negotiated” changes to the letter so as not to affect the value of their properties.
The letter said simply: “Prior to undertaking any building alterations to internal or external walls or ceilings, please contact ‘Building Control’ …
This approach was criticised by Trevor Wheeler—a former general manager of the Asbestos Branch, which handled the Commonwealth clean-up—who was commissioned to document the details of the abatement program by the 2004 ACT Asbestos Taskforce.
His … report clearly outlined the risk of residual amosite left behind in walls.
You can see it from the document. He said:
It was acknowledged at the time that not all asbestos could be removed …
The article continued:
Mr Wheeler took the unusual step of writing a private cover letter to the taskforce to underline his concerns.
The article continued with the recommendation:
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