❓ The Minister acknowledges the failures of government agencies in the Esperance lead pollution incident, apologizes, and commits to addressing the inquiry's recommendations, including offering house cleaning to affected families and making dust-monitoring results public. There is some confusion regarding recommendation numbers.
AnsweredQoN 457Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ESPERANCE LEAD POLLUTION
What is the state government’s response to the inquiry into the cause and extent of lead pollution in Esperance? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
What is the state government’s response to the inquiry into the cause and extent of lead pollution in Esperance? Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question. As the Premier and the Minister for the Environment have done, I compliment the committee on the very excellent and detailed work that it has done. We accept the fundamental finding in that report that a number of government agencies have failed in their duty to protect the community of Esperance. As the Premier has said, we sincerely apologise for that. We have taken a whole raft of actions since the issue first came to light to clean up the problem that had been created, to provide proper assurances and safeguards for the community, and to restructure some of the agencies that were involved in that issue to ensure that the standards to be met in the future are higher. The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for the question. As the Premier and the Minister for the Environment have done, I compliment the committee on the very excellent and detailed work that it has done. We accept the fundamental finding in that report that a number of government agencies have failed in their duty to protect the community of Esperance. As the Premier has said, we sincerely apologise for that. We have taken a whole raft of actions since the issue first came to light to clean up the problem that had been created, to provide proper assurances and safeguards for the community, and to restructure some of the agencies that were involved in that issue to ensure that the standards to be met in the future are higher. The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
I thank the member for the question. As the Premier and the Minister for the Environment have done, I compliment the committee on the very excellent and detailed work that it has done. We accept the fundamental finding in that report that a number of government agencies have failed in their duty to protect the community of Esperance. As the Premier has said, we sincerely apologise for that. We have taken a whole raft of actions since the issue first came to light to clean up the problem that had been created, to provide proper assurances and safeguards for the community, and to restructure some of the agencies that were involved in that issue to ensure that the standards to be met in the future are higher. The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN replied: I thank the member for the question. As the Premier and the Minister for the Environment have done, I compliment the committee on the very excellent and detailed work that it has done. We accept the fundamental finding in that report that a number of government agencies have failed in their duty to protect the community of Esperance. As the Premier has said, we sincerely apologise for that. We have taken a whole raft of actions since the issue first came to light to clean up the problem that had been created, to provide proper assurances and safeguards for the community, and to restructure some of the agencies that were involved in that issue to ensure that the standards to be met in the future are higher. The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
I thank the member for the question. As the Premier and the Minister for the Environment have done, I compliment the committee on the very excellent and detailed work that it has done. We accept the fundamental finding in that report that a number of government agencies have failed in their duty to protect the community of Esperance. As the Premier has said, we sincerely apologise for that. We have taken a whole raft of actions since the issue first came to light to clean up the problem that had been created, to provide proper assurances and safeguards for the community, and to restructure some of the agencies that were involved in that issue to ensure that the standards to be met in the future are higher. The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
The comments that were made by members were, I think, very accurate. I want to reflect particularly on the comments made by the member for Central Kimberley-Pilbara. I believe that part of this issue arose out of a resting on the laurels, whereby the performance that had been achieved by the Esperance Port Authority in the cartage of iron ore, the great community relations and structures that it had put in place throughout that process and the subsequent awards that it had received had perhaps created some complacency in dealing with the new products that were coming on board. We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
We will go through each and every one of those recommendations and consider the findings and those recommendations. However, I want to give an immediate commitment to two of the recommendations. The first is recommendation 25, which states that the families of all children with blood lead levels registering above five micrograms should be offered professional house cleaning. We are more than willing to do that. At this point it seems that about 15 households will be involved. Those offers will go out immediately. Secondly, recommendation 42 relates to making all the dust-monitoring results available to the public. I absolutely agree that that should happen. Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr T. Buswell : That’s not recommendation 42. Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr C.J. Barnett : You’ve got it back to front. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : Okay; they are the other way. Recommendation 25 - Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Mr P.D. Omodei : You really don’t know whether you’re coming or going. Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
Ms A.J.G. MacTIERNAN : A very significant issue was raised, Leader of the Opposition; I am sure that he is capable of grasping the sense of the issues. With regard to the recommendation that relates to the dust monitoring, I gave a commitment to the community when I went there a few weeks ago. It is now a formal recommendation of the inquiry and it is one that we think is absolutely necessary that we deliver on, and we will.
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