Asbestos removal stalls as uninsured home owners baulk at clean-up cost

Rural communities fear the high cost of asbestos removal puts the public at risk.

Transcript

00:00Anita Kaur spent long summers surfing and diving these waters with her dad.

00:08It was the best, yeah.

00:10Noel Chip Murray was a big country character from Esperance on WA's south coast.

00:16Never even taken a pad at all really.

00:18But two years ago he received a heartbreaking diagnosis, mesothelioma,

00:23an incurable form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

00:28You're dealing with someone who didn't want to die.

00:31Chip Murray was among 4,000 Australians who die of asbestos-related disease every year.

00:38Yet millions of tonnes of the deadly material remains in buildings all over the country.

00:43This is the fifth fire-damaged property Lorraine Bonza has visited today in Norseman,

00:49700 kilometres east of Perth.

00:51There is asbestos in it, so we need it to be removed.

00:55Asbestos clean-up is the property owner's responsibility,

00:59but many are uninsured and can't afford to remove it.

01:03The remote shire, with a small rates revenue base, can't either.

01:08Asbestos is expensive to remove safely.

01:11It could be anywhere from like $30,000 to $130,000.

01:14The state government says it's looking at funding options,

01:17but finding people to do the work is tough.

01:20There are 17 contractors licensed to remove friable asbestos in the state.

01:26Only one has an office outside Perth.

01:29There's very few that are willing to come out here to do this work.

01:33Murray, 630 kilometres northwest of Sydney, has also been grappling with the issue.

01:39Over the past four years, 125 buildings damaged by fire were left derelict.

01:45The clean-up cost for a friable asbestos dwelling could be roughly around $50,000 to $60,000.

01:51This issue occurs in areas where land values are actually half of that.

01:55The Moray Council decided to offer a $10,000 discount on waste fees

02:00for fire-damaged properties.

02:02As a result, 30 have been cleaned up this year.

02:06And another 10 to 12 scheduled hopefully by the end of the year.

02:09But there's disappointment others aren't chipping in.

02:13It is disappointing when you consider how the road toll, for example, is managed and supported,

02:18that asbestos doesn't quite get the same level of attention.

02:21It just has to be considered a priority to remove it.

02:24A call to remove the risk of more lives being needlessly lost.