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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-11 Daily Xml
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ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AUTHORITY

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): My question is again to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Was the minister aware that a senior EPA media officer wrote an email on 11 October 2011 in relation to environmental contamination at the Sanitarium site on Hackney Road which states, 'Putting it in a media release draws more attention to it'? Documents obtained by the opposition under FOI indicate that the minister was briefed in relation to environmental contamination at the Sanitarium site on Hackney Road. However, a media release on this matter was never distributed publicly.

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton—Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:45): Madam Speaker, I would compare my record with respect to the promulgation of information that relates to contamination to what they did when they were in government any time. Of course, I have stood before this house and the media—

The Hon. I.F. Evans interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P. CAICA: —and publicly said that legacy issues from customs and practice in the past that are not tolerated today have resulted in circumstances which we wish did not exist—but they do. We have to be upfront about that, and the best way of doing that in the first instance is communicating directly with residents who either will be affected or not so much affected by it but become aware of it—unlike the opposition, who want to splash it all over the media to promote their own vested interests in whatever way they want.

It is important that the first people to know are the people who live in the vicinity of it. We make no bones about the transparency that is now in place with respect to the way in which the EPA communicates to residents and the broader South Australian public on matters of legacy issues that relate to contamination. I would compare our record against theirs any day.

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