Radio Interview, Mix 104.9 Darwin

SUBJECTS: PFAS National Coordinating Body 

KATIE WOOLF [HOST]: We're going to be speaking to the Assistant Minister for Defence now because the Northern Territory has joined a National Coordinating Body for PFAS, which aims to drive coordinated action across all levels of government. Now, we know that the Body is part of the Federal Government's response to the review of land uses around bases impacted by PFAS contamination. Joining us on the line is the Assistant Minister for Defence, Peter Khalil. Good morning to you, Peter.

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Morning, Katie.

WOOLF: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Now, can you tell me more, what is the aim of the National Coordinating Body?

KHALIL: Well, the National Coordinating Body, or the NCB, as we call it, is set up to take action on PFAS remediation, addressing the PFAS problem across the country, especially in parts of the NT, such as at RAAF Base Tindal, but it also allows us to work meaningfully with local communities. We're setting up local working groups too that will report feedback into the NCB, which is going to be made up of state and territory government representatives. I met with your Chief Minister last week when I was up in Darwin and I’m really looking forward to working with one of your Ministers. So, it's really about getting the policy settings right, making sure that we're engaged with communities and actually working on the remediation of PFAS, which is a real problem across the country.

WOOLF: What kind of people, or who has been appointed to that body?

KHALIL: Well, we will open up expressions of interest for the working group next year in the NT, but the NCB is going to be made up of representatives from the Commonwealth, obviously Defence, and then other state and territory department representatives. So, basically the department representatives from across the country will be on the National Coordinating Body, they will meet regularly and then work with local community groups through the working group model. As I mentioned, we’ll be opening expressions of interest next year for the working group in the NT, where local community members, community leaders, individuals who want to put their hand up, who have been impacted by PFAS, will be able to get onto those working groups.

WOOLF: Peter, any idea when that first meeting will be or how soon it's going to actually happen?

KHALIL: Yeah, the first meeting of the PFAS National Coordinating Body is going to be convening on the 10th of November. And I know that the Department of the Chief Minister and the Cabinet will be joining this meeting and leading some of the important initiatives of the NCB as we bring the Northern Territory into the national approach. So, Minister Burgoyne, one of your Ministers will be briefed on the outcomes of each meeting. I’ll also be briefed on the outcomes of those meetings from our departmental officials, obviously. And what we want to make sure that we set up that working group in the NT to address the contamination present at RAAF Base Tindal. Now we're getting one going in Williamtown in New South Wales, which is the RAAF Base down there, it’ll act as a pilot, or an approach we're working towards. But we also want to set one up for the Northern Territory to address contamination in Tindal next year.

WOOLF: And what kind of new initiatives and solutions do you reckon we might see for the Northern Territory once things get sort of kicking along?

KHALIL: Yeah, look, it is a real issue up there at Tindal near Katherine and I've just come into the job and one of the priorities I have is to take action to actually address some of these issues at Williamtown, Tindal near Katherine and Oakey as well in Queensland near Toowoomba. There are elevated PFAS levels in Katherine which is associated with the use of contaminated groundwater. And so there's warnings up there set out by the Northern Territory Government around, you know, precautionary advice around locally caught fish and some bush foods. When we discovered this in 2019, where you had the sort of issues of the drinking bore water and the elevated risks, we took action. Defence is operating two groundwater treatment plants near Tindal to remove PFAS from the groundwater water and reduce the amount of PFAS that moves off base. It's all about containing it, actually. We've treated over 3 billion liters of PFAS contaminated groundwater to date since we started that in 2019. And we've also looked at solutions for the long term water supply for Katherine. So, Defence has funded the construction of a permanent groundwater treatment plant in Katherine which treats up to about 10 million liters of water per day. And then separate to that, we've funded and set up 111 rainwater tanks across 83 adjoining properties for local properties address some of those issues vis a vis the groundwater through those tanks. So, a lot of efforts being done to remediate the land and stop further spread of PFAS. And I think that eventually the working group in Tindal, we really want their expertise, local community understanding about what we need to do down at the ground level. And that's why I'm so keen to get moving on this.

WOOLF: Look, I know a lot of people still have real concerns. We've got a lot of listeners that are in Katherine around that PFAS contamination. We want to know what they're thinking, you know, this just hasn't happened quickly enough and it doesn't go far enough?

KHALIL: Yeah, look, I'd say to the local community, I mean everything is being done that we can do. Defence is actually ahead of the curve and this is a global problem by the way, Katie. I mean PFAS is known as the forever chemical. There are massive class actions happening in the US and other parts of the world. When Defence found out about the effects of this very early on, they spent billions of dollars, hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars on remediation efforts across areas of our responsibility. So, the bases, and then primarily as well, making sure that the spread of PFAS does not go off base and impact local communities and where it has, working with those local communities to remediate. And so my message to the people of Katherine is we're doing everything we can to address the problem. We want to work with the local community, we want to work community leaders, indigenous leaders, we want to work with people who are being impacted. And that's why I've moved very quickly since I got sworn in to set up the National Coordinating Body to give it real teeth from the highest levels of state, territory and Commonwealth Governments and then down through those working groups who have the local expertise and understand the issues people are facing. It’s all about having that two way coordination so we’re acting with the full backing of the community and we work in address the issues directly.

WOOLF: Well, Assistant Minister for Defence, Peter Khalil, really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for having a chat with us.

KHALIL: Thanks Katie.

ENDS