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92 <strong>SENATE</strong> Thursday, 13 October 2016<br />
The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator O'Sullivan): Senator Cameron, address your remarks<br />
through the chair.<br />
Senator CAMERON: Anyway, well done for bringing this to the Senate. Labor has had inquiries into this<br />
issue. This is a big issue for the people of Williamtown.<br />
I want to finish on this. This is not about a Senate inquiry hearing from some farmer-come-doctor in northern<br />
Queensland who cannot see any symptoms. This is about the precautionary principle. This is about taking steps to<br />
ensure that people who may have been affected by this are looked after and that, if they are affected, they are<br />
compensated. That is the issue here. It is pretty simple. When some of the weirder members in the Liberal Party—<br />
and their numbers are getting greater by the day in this place—simply say that wind turbines are a problem but<br />
firefighting chemicals are all okay, I really just do not get it. I stand beside the community in Williamtown, as<br />
does the local member, Meryl Swanson, and as does the Labor Party. We want the government to do more. The<br />
minister, Marise Payne, has only been up there once since this happened. I do not think that is good enough. I<br />
think the minister should be in here telling us exactly what is happening and how this can be fast-tracked. In fact,<br />
the minister should be in here now supporting this motion to get this resolved and not sending her minions in here<br />
to give us the nonsense that we just heard from Senator Back.<br />
So I support the motion, and I hope that we can provide some support and some comfort to the residents of<br />
Williamtown and other areas that are affected by this. I am a New South Wales senator, so I particularly know<br />
about the issues in Williamtown. I am not across the issues elsewhere, but the principles will be the same. When<br />
multinational corporations are producing chemicals that could be carcinogenic, are long-lasting in the soil and are<br />
polluting the water system, something has to be done about it. I do not think the government is treating it seriously<br />
enough, so I welcome the opportunity to continue our concern about this issue. Again, Senator Burston, thanks for<br />
bringing this to the Senate today.<br />
Senator WILLIAMS (New South Wales—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (17:18): I rise to contribute to this<br />
debate and thank Senator Burston for bringing it to the attention of the Senate. As always, I will be very frank.<br />
Until a few days ago, I knew nothing about this issue at Salt Ash and Williamtown. I think the problem has been<br />
around for years; in 2003 or so it was first brought to light. I do not know if that is true or not. If it was, I question<br />
what Senator Cameron did about it in the six years they were in government, but we will not go into the politics of<br />
that. But it came to my attention because I had a call from a journalist, who said, 'There are some problems with<br />
the residents here at Williamtown because the banks are giving a couple of them a bit of a hard time.' What I mean<br />
by that is that this journalist—and I am not going to name people or institutions, banks or whatever—said that<br />
people's properties have been devalued because of this contamination. You would be aware of it, Senator Burston.<br />
The value of their properties has gone down, so their loan-to-value ratio has gone up and there are some concerns.<br />
So the first thing I did was phone Steven Munchenberg from the Australian Bankers Association just a few days<br />
ago and explain the situation to him.<br />
Senator Cameron: 'Hey, Steven, it's Wacka here,' and Steven goes, 'Uh-oh!'<br />
Senator WILLIAMS: A terrible interjection from Senator Cameron over there, Mr Acting Deputy<br />
President—you should pull him into line! Anyway, Steven Munchenberg was very good, as always. I get on very<br />
well with Steven and the Australian Bankers Association. I called representatives of the big four banks to say,<br />
'Look, there's a problem here. People's properties are being devalued through absolutely no fault of their own.'<br />
This foam was being used for many years to put out so-called fuel fires. It is a pollutant and it has spread. Has it<br />
gone into the water system? Has it gone into the ground? I do not know. There has to be a lot of research to find<br />
the facts out here. But the point I make is that it was no fault whatsoever of the residents there. Their properties<br />
have been devalued and perhaps are not even saleable, with the media et cetera going around. In my opinion, we<br />
have to have a good, close look at this. As I just said to Senator Nash, imagine if some government department or<br />
someone else came along to the edge of my little farm—my wife, Nancy, and I have a little property out at<br />
Inverell—and polluted the creek and our property or poisoned the soil or whatever. We would want to know why.<br />
It would certainly devalue our little farm. If we were totally not responsible for the damage, the pollution and the<br />
devaluation, I would certainly be asking questions, just like the residents of Williamtown. I am not familiar with<br />
the situation at Oakey; I only talk from experience and what has been brought to my attention. They have serious<br />
concerns.<br />
I do thank the Australian Bankers Association and the representatives I have spoken to from the four big banks<br />
to say, 'Look, we're not going to be doing any panicking. We're going to work with these people.' It may be a<br />
different situation if you are in one of these houses, you have your house mortgaged to a business, your business is<br />
going bad, your cash flow is going bad and you cannot maintain your payments. Then you will have to talk to<br />
your bank and try to work it through. But the point I make is that, if these properties have been devalued through<br />
absolutely no fault of the owners of the properties, we have a problem to work through. And I do appreciate the<br />
CHAMBER