NSW Government being accused of covering up lead dust impact on children

The New South Wales government is facing allegations of a cover-up over an EPA report on lead dust in the state's outback.

Transcript

00:00The report commissioned in 2018 looked at how residents here in Broken Hill in far western

00:07New South Wales were being exposed to the heavy metal.

00:10The report found that the current and legacy mines, as well as Broken Hill's central ore

00:14body, known as the line of load, were the key sources of lead contamination and were

00:19contributing to high levels of the substance in children's blood.

00:23The report's author, Professor Mark Taylor, said that children are particularly at risk

00:27from lead dust through ingestion.

00:30Data from 2024 show 68 per cent of Indigenous and 35 per cent of non-Indigenous children

00:35aged 1 to 5 have lead levels that exceed National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines.

00:42Internal EPA emails and correspondence seen by the ABC state that while the EPA wanted

00:47to publish the report about Broken Hill, several factors influenced its decision to hold off

00:52publication.

00:54The documents seen by the ABC suggested the EPA had concerns about how the report would

00:59be received.

01:00One stated that the report contained recommendations that may have been unpalatable to the mining

01:05companies and the community in Broken Hill.

01:08In several others, staff discussed how they wanted to avoid media attention and release it quietly.

01:13After the report was finished and handed to the EPA in 2019, it wasn't until almost four

01:19years later the report was released publicly.

01:22Speaking to the ABC, the CEO of the NSW EPA Tony Chappell, who took on the role in 2022 and

01:28pushed for the report's release in 2023, said it's disappointing and that it is not a reflection

01:34of their culture, stating that he is committed to transparent provision of real-time information.