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On 17 November 2010, the NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour tabled a report to Parliament entitled 'Responding to the asbestos problem: The need for significant reform in NSW'. Following the release of the Ombudsman’s report, the government has committed to $5.6 million to complete the minimum clean up required for the Woods Reef site.
The report can be accessed here. Materials containing asbestos were used extensively in Australian buildings and structures, plant and equipment and in ships, trains and motor vehicles during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. Some uses, including some friction materials and gaskets, were only discontinued at the end of 2003. Today there are tens of thousands of houses and industrial buildings in NSW that are constructed from materials containing asbestos.
In NSW there is no single government agency responsible for coordinating the management and containment of asbestos, there is no state-wide government plan for dealing with asbestos, there are gaps in asbestos legislation and funding to deal with these issues is inadequate.
In addition to discussing the approach to asbestos across the State, the report highlighted the situation at the former Woods Reef asbestos mine near Barraba in northern NSW. The mine was closed in 1983, but little has been done to clean up the site since that time. The site is heavily contaminated, and is covered in both processed, friable asbestos and asbestos tailings. A departmental report in 2009 recommended spending a minimum of $5.5 million to remove the buildings and processed asbestos waste. This was not included in the State budget for 2010-2011. The Ombudsman recommended that the $5.5 million be allocated to go part of the way towards making the Woods Reef site less of a health risk.
The Ombudsman also made a number of other recommendations aimed at improving the response to asbestos in NSW, and will continue to monitor the government response to these recommendations.
Source: NSW Ombudsman
