Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-07-03 Daily Xml

Contents

Question Time

Site Contamination, Clovelly Park and Mitchell Park

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:24): If the Clovelly Park contamination issue is as trivial as the minister implied by his performance yesterday in parliament, why then did he and teams of officials descend on the suburb to doorknock the area just 3½ hours after it was first raised, including commencing the evacuation process?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (14:25): It is unfortunate indeed that the members of the Liberal Party in this place did not think through the implications of the matters they were raising on the residents concerned. My concern throughout this process—and as I have advised we were planning to doorknock today—was to tell the residents first, tell the people directly impacted by this information first.

Unfortunately, the Liberal Party had a different view. It did not think through the implications for those people; it did not think through the implication for people who may see it on the TV news in a very truncated and abbreviated form, and so I thought it was important to bring forward by about 20 hours the doorknocking that we were going to undertake today in any case and I instructed my agencies to gather at 6 o'clock and begin doorknocking last evening.