It’s the agency tasked to protect the people, now the Department of Defence is under investigation for how it handled a chemical spill that’s turned a small community north of Newcastle on its head.
Defence officials will be grilled this week, when a senate inquiry travels to Newcastle to investigate a toxic leak from the Williamtown RAAF Base.
NBN reporter Georgina Smyth delves a little deeper into the issue.
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You also need to take a look at the Army Aviation Centre at Oakey QLD. It was the first Defence establishment to suffer widespread PFOA PFOS contamination. Both deliberately and accidentally these toxins were poured down drains. The town is dying and so are livelihoods. The Dept of Defence are clueless as to what to do. I worked there for many years and they could care less about the health and welfare of Veteran’s, Ex Service Members and their families. The locals don’t stand a chance of fighting the Defence juggernaut because it’s all about the money.
This issue isn’t confined to Defence bases – the same AFFF was used at all airfields, civilian and military, all around the world. It was best practice and the harmful effects were unknown at the time. As soon as the risk was identified, all use was stopped and investigation of the effects on the environment and local communities was commenced. The media should be careful to deliver a balanced and complete story on this issue instead of vilifying the ADF for simply following commonly accepted practices of the day.