Assistant Minister for Defence Peter Khalil says a new national coordinating body for PFAS will work with local working groups in Katherine on remediating the land around Tindal, adding that Defence has funded a permanent groundwater treatment plant and more than 100 rainwater tanks on local properties

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Northern Territories 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 users around
defense space is impacted by PFAS contamination. Joining us on

(00:21):
the line is the Assistant Minister for Defense, Peter Khalil.
Good morning to you, Peter, Morning Katie. How are you yeah?
Really good? Thank you so much for your time this morning.
Now can you tell me more what is the aim
of the National Coordinating Body?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, the National Court or the NCB as we call it,
is set up really to be a body that actually
takes action on PFAS remediation, addressing the PFAS problem which
is across the country but certainly in parts of the
NT such as the Tindall Base, and also being able
to work with local communities. We're setting up local working
groups that will report feedback into the end. NCB is

(01:01):
going to be made up of ministers from state and
territory governments. I met with your Chief Minister last week
when I was up up in Darwin and really looking
forward to working with one of your ministers I think
he's going to be involved in that in that NCB
and the working group as well for Tindalls. So it's
really about getting that policy setting right, making sure that

(01:23):
we're engaged with communities and actually working on the remediation
of PFAS, which is a real problem across country.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
What kind of people or who has been appointed to
that body.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, we opened up expressions of interest for the working
groups that the NCB is going to be made up
of representatives from the Commonwealth obviously Defense which is ME,
and then state ministers and territory representatives as well and departments.
So basically the department representatives from ME to the states

(01:54):
and territories will be on the National Coordinating Body, and
that body is going to be meeting and then working
with local community groups through the working group model, where
there will be expressions of interest opening up for the
working groups where local community members, community leaders, individuals who
want to put their hand up who have been affected
as stakeholders by pfas will be able to get onto

(02:16):
those working groups.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Any idea when that first meeting or how soon it's
going to actually happen yet, the.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
First meeting of the PFAS National Coordinating Body is going
to be convening on the tenth 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 introduce in
the Northern Territory. So, Minister Bergoline, one of your ministers

(02:45):
will be briefed on the outcomes of each meeting, will
be briefed on the outcomes of those meetings from our
departmental officials obviously, and what we want to do also
as given Tindall is one of the sites, is make
sure that we set up that working group in Kindall.
Now we've done one in Williamtown which is the raft
based down there as a model or we're working towards

(03:05):
that model. We want to set one up to the
Northern Territory in Tindrill, probably early next year.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
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.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, Look, it is a real issue up there in
Tindall and Catherrine, I think, and I've looked at I've
just come into the job obviously, and I'm one of
the priorities I have is to take action to actually
address some of these issues at Williamtown and Tindall and
Catherine and Oak as well in Queensland. There are elevated
PFAS levels in Catherine which is associated with the use

(03:39):
of PFAS contaminated groundwater, and so there's warnings up there
by the Northern Territory Government around of cautionary advice around
locally caught fish and some bush foods. When we discovered
this in twenty nineteen, where you had the sort of
issues of the drinking bore water and the elevated risks,
we took actions. Defense has operated too groundwater treatment plans

(04:00):
on Tindal to remove prefas from the groundwater and reduce
the amount of prefas that moves off base. It's all
about containing it. Actually, we've treated over three billion leaders
of prefas contaminat groundwater to date since we started that
in twenty nineteen. And we've also looked at solutions for
the long term water supply for Catherine. So Defense has
funded the construction of a permanent groundwater treatment plant in Catherine,

(04:21):
which treats up to about ten million leaders of water
per day, and then separate to that, we've funded and
set up one hundred and eleven rainwater tanks across eighty
three adjoining properties for local properties to address some of
those issues visa the groundwater through those tanks. So a
lot of efforts being done to remediate the land and

(04:41):
stop further spreads of PREFAS. And I think that eventually
the working group intendall, we really want their expertise, local
community understanding about what we need to do down on
the ground level. And that's why I'm so keen to
get moving on this.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Look, I know a lot of people still have real concerns.
We've got a lot of listeners that are in Catherine,
you know, around that PFAS contamination. What would you say
to them this morning if they're thinking, you know, this
just hasn't happened quickly enough and it doesn't go far enough.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, Look, I say to the local community, everything, I mean,
everything is being done that we can do. Defense is
actually ahead of the curve. I mean, this is a
global problem by the locati. I mean PFAS is known
as the forever chemical. There are massive class actions happening
in the US and other parts of the world against
the company defense. You know, when we found out about

(05:33):
the effects of this very early on, started to put
billions of We've spent billions of dollars one 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 p FAS does
not go off base and impact local communities and where
it has, working with those local communities to remediate and

(05:56):
so my message to the people of Catherine is we're
doing everything we can and to address the problem. We
want to work with the local community and work with
local 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've got sworn into set up the
National Coordinating Body to give it real teeth from the

(06:19):
highest levels of state, territory and commalth governments and then
down to those working groups who have the expertise and
the issues that they're facing and have that two way
coordination so we can know when we do something, we're
doing it with the full backing of the community, and
we work and address their issues directly.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Well, Assistant Minister for Defense Peter Khalil, really appreciate your
time this morning. Thanks so much for having a chat
with us.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Thanks Katie, thank you.