Thursday, May 25, 2000

DELAHUNTY MUST COME CLEAN ON ASBESTOS RISK MANAGEMENT PLANS

Schools that have received some of the 195 asbestos affected portable
classrooms are now being assisted by the Education Department to develop
asbestos risk management and containment plans to nullify any health risks
to children and teachers.

Shadow Education Minister Phil Honeywood said today he had received
information that a number of principals of the affected schools are
urgently developing plans with the Education Department to minimise risk to
students and teachers in rooms lined with asbestos.

Mr Honeywood said it was a disgrace that schools across Victoria were not
notified of the presence of asbestos when they received the 195 portables
over the Christmas School Holiday period. The former Coalition Government
deemed the modular 1,2 and 3 portables unsuitable for full time classroom
use.

Eighteen of those classrooms were recommissioned by Minister Delahunty from
a Port Melbourne storage yard and put back into service as full-time
classrooms.

Mr Honeywood said Minister Delahunty must immediately inform the public
which schools were developing anti-asbestos plans, what the content of
those plans were, and why action to reduce potential health risks had taken
almost five months.

"In the absence of any guidelines or information being provided to the
affected schools to date by either the Minister or her department, it has
now been left to individual school principals and their school councils to
initiate asbestos risk management and containment plans," he said.

"In her haste to reduce class sizes without any funding for new classrooms
this financial year, Minister Delahunty has clearly put her promises ahead
of the health needs of teachers and children.

"It's appalling that Minister Delahunty was content to remain silent on
this issue until concerned parents at Somerville Rise Primary School and
Langwarrin Park Primary School instigated their own independent asbestos
audit and the Opposition obtained an asbestos classroom database under FOI.

"This issue can no longer be kept under wraps and it's time Minister
Delahunty admitted she should have informed schools receiving the portables
almost five months ago that they were asbestos affected and protocols
should have been established."