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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-11-25 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

Contaminated Children's Play Sand

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills, Minister for Police) (14:05): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: Today I rise to update the house on the discovery of asbestos in imported children's play sand and the implications for South Australian schools, preschools and families. On 13 November the Department for Education was made aware of an ACCC product recall notice regarding certain coloured sand products due to concerns they contained a naturally occurring asbestos. As soon as the recall was issued, the department began working with SafeWork SA on our response.

After receiving SafeWork SA advice on 14 November, the department immediately issued a hazard alert to all schools and preschools providing information on what to do if the affected products were found on site. This advice included removing sealed products from classrooms and cordoning off any rooms where the sand was discovered loose. The department also alerted the non-government school sector about the recall, and the Education Standards Board communicated to all care providers.

The recall has triggered the largest decontamination effort South Australia has ever undertaken in our education system, with 501 government schools and preschools alone having reported having the products on site. Across government schools and preschools we have deployed specialist contractors to safely remove and dispose of the contaminated sand and undertake industrial cleaning of classrooms. Where the sand was loose and cleaning is required, air monitoring must be undertaken and clearance certificates provided to be able to reoccupy those spaces.

I am pleased to report that, as of this afternoon, of the 271 sites where sealed sand was reported 206 have had their sand collected by the licensed contractor. The remaining 65 sites are scheduled for collection this week. Of the 230 sites where the sand was loose or in artwork, 158 have been cleaned and, of those, 95 have been issued clearance certificates and are operating as normal. The remaining sites have work scheduled with contractors.

This is slow, meticulous and specialist work. It cannot be rushed and it cannot be done cheaply. The recall has led to costly specialised removal and cleaning in thousands of buildings across the country. It has affected schools, preschools, childcare centres, out-of-school-hours care services, and hundreds of thousands of families who bought this sand from trusted retailers like Target, Kmart, Woolworths and Officeworks to use in their own backyards and homes.

The bill for this cleanup will be significant, and the obvious question is: who should pay? I have already written to the federal government calling for an urgent national inquiry into how these sand products were allowed into Australia and distributed so widely. Today and over coming days I will be calling on the retailers to help fund the clean-up.

I would like to thank staff in schools and the department's corporate areas for their incredibly diligent and immediate response to this issue, and I thank students and their families for their patience as we work through this enormous task.

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