The Williamtown and surrounding community should be congratulated on the success of their delegation to Canberra yesterday. 

In a series of meetings with Government and Shadow Ministers, the delegation highlighted the day-to-day reality for local residents and fishers living and working in contaminated areas.

By sharing their personal stories about the impact of the ongoing contamination from RAAF Base Williamtown, a cross-party motion has been put forward to establish a Senate Inquiry to investigate this contamination issue. 

I am pleased that the Government has indicated that they will now support the motion. If it wasn’t for community members making the long trip to Canberra yesterday, it would have been very difficult to achieve this outcome.

This Inquiry is crucial to get to the bottom of the community’s questions and concerns.

This community is resilient and they have shown that they can pull together to get the results they were after.

It is expected the cross-party Motion will be passed by the Senate on Monday, that an Inquiry will be established to look into the management of this very complex financial, health and environmental issue and that a public hearing will be held in Newcastle.