No cash contamination clean-up

The Weatherill Labor Government has failed to allocate funding to implement the most important recommendation of its review of the Clovelly Park contamination crisis.

The Weatherill Labor Government has failed to allocate funding to implement the most important recommendation of its review of the Clovelly Park contamination crisis.

"With less than half of the estimated 4000 contamination sites in South Australia identified and just 161 audits in progress the need for active investigation of contaminated sites is paramount," said Shadow Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation.

"South Australians need to know where the contaminated sites are and how to protect themselves from the potentially devastating health impacts of living near contaminated land.

"Yet when questioned in the Parliament regarding the funding of a program to identify and assess the thousands of unregistered contaminated sites Environment Minister Ian Hunter replied that work was in the planning stages and no funding had been allocated

"After 13 years in office the best the Minister for the Environment can offer is a plan to act on a problem that puts public health and environmental health at great risk.

"Rather than sitting on their hands the Weatherill Government should establish a unit of contamination investigators to scour the public record for potential contaminated sites.

"Council business records offer a sensible place to begin in the search for contaminated sites.

"But this will require money and the expenditure on contamination testing up to date has been woefully inadequate."