00:00Residents from the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community near Jervis Bay on the state's south coast
00:06have gathered in Nowra today to give evidence as the Senate inquires into Australia's management
00:12of PFAS.
00:14In 2016, the Australian Defence Force revealed high levels of PFAS had seeped into waterways
00:20at Wreck Bay due to the use of firefighting foam at nearby defence base HMAS Creswell.
00:25In 2023, members of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community sued the Australian Defence Force
00:30for $22 million in a class action lawsuit for the impacts that the contamination has
00:35had on cultural practice.
00:38Today at the hearing, members of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community gave evidence about
00:41the impact of losing those cultural practices on future generations, claiming that children
00:46were no longer able to go out onto country and do the things that they were once able
00:51to do, instead only able to learn culture in the classroom.
00:55Emotions were also high today when residents of the Wreck Bay community were giving evidence
00:59about the illness and death that had occurred in the community since over the last three
01:04decades of PFAS contamination.
01:07The inquiry heard from a local Jervis Bay GP, Dr David Goldberg, who had worked for
01:12ten years in the community in the early 2000s.
01:15Here's what he had to say about health impacts linked to PFAS in the community.
01:20I am of the firm belief that there is a cancer cluster occurring in Wreck Bay, and the statistics
01:29from the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing show that Wreck Bay, four years
01:35out of, five years out of ten between 2010 and 2020, was the most dangerous place in
01:42Australia to live from the point of view of dying under 75 or medical conditions.
01:46Day two of the public hearings this week will be held in Penrith, with residents from the
01:50Blue Mountains and Richmond giving evidence alongside Sydney Water, Water New South Wales
01:56and the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority.
01:59The final report is expected to be handed down with recommendations to the Federal Government
02:03in August this year.
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