Television Interview, Nine News Newcastle

SUBJECTS: PFAS remediation efforts in Williamtown. 

JESSICA WORBOYS [JOURNALIST]: I’ll just get you to start with your first and last name and your title, just for the tape. 

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: G’day, my name is Peter Khalil, I’m the Assistant Minister for Defence. 

WORBOYS: All righty. Can you just tell me, I guess, about the latest movements that we’ve seen in the last week or so? 

KHALIL: Yeah, look, I’m so aware of the distress, the concern, the frustration of families in this local community with respect to PFAS, and that’s why it’s so important to take actions to address these issues. And Defence, they’ve got a local member here in Meryl Swanson, the federal MP, who has been a fierce advocate on behalf of the communities, and I think a real big part as to why Defence has spent almost a billion dollars in testing and management and remediation efforts of PFAS, basically trying to stop that remediating and stop that PFAS at its source. More than 400 million paid out in claims, and here just in the Williamtown area over $125 million on remediation efforts. 

But it is frustrating, it is concerning. And that’s why since I was just elected or sworn in as minister just a couple of months ago, I really had – the first person on the phone to me was actually Meryl Swanson as an advocate again for her community. And that’s why I prioritised the need for action for the Williamtown community, set up a national coordinating body, which was a recommendation of the independent review that we commissioned and from there also, importantly, a nationally consistent approach with the New South Wales ministers and other state and territory ministers but, importantly, a community-led response with community-led working groups which we are going to establish and have here in Williamtown. Williamtown will be the first community-led working group. It will be made up – Meryl will be on it, state MPs, the members of the Port Stephens council, also the Worimi Indigenous council members and local community members. Expressions are still open actually until Friday so people can put their hand up and be part of that response and that ongoing effort. 

I think the main point is through the working group, having that community involvement to actually take actions to remediate the PFAS and work with the community is so important. We are leading the way. Defence is leading the way. I know there’s a lot more work to do, but it’s important that we take these actions for the community. 

WORBOYS: Yes, so talking about, I guess, once these working group, the Williamtown working group is set up, tell me, I guess, about what the actions, I guess, will be like to explore next steps? What will it actually do?

KHALIL: So the important thing about the community-led working group is being able to focus on localised issues. I mean, obviously each case, each property is different. Having that local knowledge, having that specific knowledge allows it to be fed into the national coordinating body at the national level and have a nationally consistent approach but also be able to deal with the details of particular cases here in Williamtown. There’s a lot of work being done around testing, around management of the areas but also the remediation of PFAS to ensure that it’s stopped at its source. That work will continue and have that localised approach.

But hearing from the local community members about what needs to be done on specific areas is really, really important. I’m very cognisant of having that knowledge filter through so the actions are dealing with what they need to deal with. And having people like Meryl Swanson on this working group is so critically important given her advocacy but obviously with the other community members understanding their community. 

WORBOYS: I’ve been speaking to some of the residents in the last week or so just for this story. And I’ve been asking them about their thoughts on the new working group. And I guess the general consensus is it’s been 10 years, so what, I guess, is actually a new committee going to do? Is it actually going to do anything? They’re very concerned that, okay, great, we’re forming another group and it’s been 10 years, so what is a new group going to do? 

KHALIL: I think, Jess, absolutely, the frustration, the concern, the distress of community members who have waited such a long time, whoever had to deal with these issues, it’s very distressing for families. Defence has spent almost a billion dollars on remediation efforts across the country, 125 million in the Williamtown area. There’s more work to do. 

The difference with the working group is that it will contain and involve local community members who have the understanding and the knowledge of what their needs are and be able to filter that through into the actions that need to be taken going forward. There are three water treatment plants at Williamtown that are treating PFAS and removing it and then having it destroyed as well. There are ongoing remediation efforts around the Williamtown base as well. These are really important actions, but obviously understanding from local – from the local community, their needs and what needs to happen is critically important, and that’s why the working group at Williamtown is the first to be established. There’ll be others established around the country as the national coordinating body gets on with its work and addressing the recommendations that have been made by the independent review. 

WORBOYS: But, Assistant Minister, couldn’t this have been done five years ago, 10 years ago? I mean, 10 years ago, how old was I? I was 17. So that’s a long time. Couldn’t this have been done 10 years ago? 

KHALIL: Well, frankly, we were not in government. And the Albanese Government has taken actions on remediation, as I said, spent almost a billion dollars on remediation across the country, over 400 million in claims that have been paid. But, more importantly, we are on to this. One of the first things I said on becoming minister, on being sworn in, was getting a call from Meryl Swanson – actually, I think she called me before I was sworn in even – about the needs of the local Williamtown community, and that’s why I moved to adopt those recommendations and put them into place, setting up a national coordinating body, setting up the first community-led working group in Williamtown so that we can get on with the job of doing what we need to do around testing, around management and around remediation of the PFAS for the Williamtown community. There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s important that we hear the voices of the local community. 

And I’m going to be meeting later today with Meryl, with the local community – some of the local community members to hear directly from them as well. I’ve made this a priority since I was sworn in as Assistant Minister for Defence. It is important that we move forward on the actions that we need to take to help the community get through this process. 

WORBOYS: No worries. And when I’ve been speaking to residents as well, buybacks have certainly been a hot topic. You know, one resident said, “If we could sell our house tomorrow, we’d absolutely get out of here.” Is buybacks something that’s still being considered? 

KHALIL: Well, the independent review did not recommend buybacks because they are not feasible. The independent review did recommend that we put our efforts and our resources into remediation, which is what we’ve been doing and we’ll continue to do. There are other things that we can do with the state government with respect to the land and the zoning of the land, which I’ll let Meryl speak to. 

But I think it’s important to note putting the money and the effort into the remediation, the testing, the management and the remediation efforts which stop the PFAS at its source is of critical importance. Those resources have to go into that because that’s what stops PFAS at its source. As I said, here in Williamtown there are three water treatment plants that are basically taking that water and working through and getting the PFAS out of it and then destroying it as well. And that is covering a fair chunk of PFAS that it’s removing from the groundwater and the above ground water. So that is where the resource and the effort has to be put in. 

WORBOYS: What’s, I guess, the timeline in stopping this chemical at the source? 

KHALIL: Well, it’s an ongoing effort, and Defence is putting the resources and the funding and the investment into remediation. As I said, almost a billion dollars in remediation efforts. That will be ongoing. It’s an ongoing effort here at Williamtown with the water treatment plants, with the extraction of PFAS from the soil as well on the base to stop it at its source. That is an ongoing effort and will continue to occur to ensure that PFAS does not flow through further or increase, and remove PFAS from the water sources. And that will continue on. 

WORBOYS: But do you know whether it will be another decade? Is it going to take another decade for this part of it to be done? 

KHALIL: We’ll continue to do the work that’s needed to remediate PFAS from both the water and the soil. This is across the country that we’re making these efforts. This type of chemical is a very difficult one to remediate, but we are investing heavily into making sure that we address these issues here at Williamtown but across the country as well. 

WORBOYS: Okay, thank you. Was there anything else you wanted add to that? 

KHALIL: Meryl, did you want to give a local angle? 

MERYL SWANSON [FEDERAL MP FOR PATERSON]: Yeah. Meryl Swanson, Federal Member for Paterson. 

WORBOYS: Obviously you’ve been the local member for, yeah, pretty much almost the whole time that this has been going on. What have you been, I guess, seeing with residents during that time? 

SWANSON: Jess, this issue is one of the main reasons that I ran for parliament in the first place. I, like many people in our community, remember that day when, as we used to call it, the red zone was first declared, and there was complete upheaval in our community. 

Now, there’s been a lot of heartbreak, and I just want to acknowledge again, as I’ve done many times, that I know people have had a lot of distress about this. But I also want to say that in the Albanese Government they have a government who actually cares. My community took the previous government to court. They had to fight their government. In our government we are a government that wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with this community and, as the Assistant Minister has just said, we are working to curb this problem at the source and we’re also now wanting to work with our community. 

We had to do the investigation of land use in and around the base. That was a priority and a must. And now we must continue to work with our community to help them at this time. And to continue, quite frankly, this is not a quick fix. We know these are forever chemicals. It is going to take time. But we want to get the community involved, and we do want meaningful solutions in the shorter term rather than the longer term as well. 

So I know how hard it’s been. I’ve been on this journey. You know, I’ve shed many a tear myself to be honest with you, and I know how frustrating and hard it is. But we are taking legitimate and real steps forward now, and not just on the base but also off the base. Defence is now looking at filtering water off the base as well as on, and I know that that is a big problem. Things like the drains and the drainage network, we want to work, as Peter has said, with the state government. We need to work with the state government about drainage. It is a big issue and those drains in and around Williamtown and Tilbury are really important. 

And the other thing is rezoning. We know that there is opportunity there. So we’ve not only got to look at the big battle ahead against PFAS, but we’ve also got to look at the opportunities. We’ve just seen the Newcastle Airport open the new international terminal. We know that’s going to bring opportunity for our region. So how can we turn this catastrophe into opportunity for our region? That’s one of the things that the national coordinating body as it’s being instructed by locals on the ground will be able to look at too. 

So there’s so much opportunity, but it’s about getting local voices and local knowledge so that we can maximise those things as well as helping people deal with this really difficult situation. 

WORBOYS: Residents have said that they’ve essentially lost faith in anything happening in the future. Do you think that they, after 10 years, should have any faith left? 

SWANSON: I understand that. I completely understand, when the faith bucket is empty and you think, you know, what is there left for us. And I respect that and I completely – I completely – empathise and understand it. I’ve been on this journey with them. But I want them to hold what little faith they’ve got left tight because in our government they have a government that does care, that does want to take meaningful action. And I think that’s the important thing here. This is a government that is wanting to make a change for the better in terms of this issue.

WORBOYS: Great. That’s all good. Thank you.

ENDS