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So, what do the people of Morwell think of the Hazelwood mine fire inquiry?
Morwell is a small town of 14,000 people about 150km east of Melbourne in the Latrobe valley. As the commission noted, it is one of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. Guardian Australia recently published a feature on the town.
The commissioner, Bernard Teague, who also headed the royal commission into the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, said on Tuesday the No 1 issue in this inquiry was health. There were short-term health problems – bloody noses, headaches, sores eyes – and there were long-term impacts, especially for people with existing cardiovascular or respiratory conditions.
The Latrobe valley already has a high percentage of people with a disabilities and with cardiovascular and respiratory disease. It has a high percentage of low-income households. The inquiry found that the mine fire “added further insult to an already vulnerable community”.
One innovative recommendation was that the fire be the impetus for renewed efforts to improve health in the region. It suggests a “health conservation zone” be declared in the valley, to coordinate and integrate health services. It recommends a health advocate be appointed, to give residents a voice on health and to mediate and advocate on health issues. It will be interesting to see if these ideas are taken up.
The community’s complaints during the 45 days of fire were largely vindicated by the inquiry. Communication was poor and confusing. The recommendations for vulnerable groups to relocate did come too late. And the Hazelwood mine was not properly prepared for ember attack in its disused sections.
‘An entirely preventable disaster’
Wendy Farmer helped set up the community group Voices of the Valley as a direct result of the fire. The group held a protest on 2 March, while the fire was still burning, which attracted 1,500 people. It’s now lobbying for improvements to mine safety and for a greater diversity of industry in the region. Here’s what Farmer has to say about the inquiry:
“The recommendations are disappointing regarding mine remediation. Clearly the disused parts of the mine where there are uncovered coalfaces need to be properly rehabilitated to ensure that these areas don’t pose an ongoing fire risk to the community. We want to see a clear timeline and goals for this process, and believe that it should be commenced as soon as possible.
“The government clearly failed in its duty of care to the community through lack of oversight and regulation of the mine. Moving forward, we need to know precisely what is being done to ensure that this disaster can never happen again.
“The inquiry acknowledged there were ‘extensive short-term health impacts’ suffered by local residents as a result of the fire. We know that many people have suffered ongoing health issues. There is a failure to recommend that these impacts be measured, quantified, treated or otherwise addressed in any way, other than through the long-term health study.
“The inquiry also acknowledged that ‘many people and local businesses have experienced financial impacts for a range of reasons including downturn in business, medical costs, veterinary costs, time taken off work, relocation from homes, cleaning homes and businesses and possible decrease in property values’.
“The cost estimate for the fire is in excess of $100m, which was borne by the local community, by the government, and by GDF Suez.
“It’s obvious this was an entirely preventable disaster, that resulted from negligence on the behalf of GDF Suez and the government. It’s pathetic that the only way these costs will be recovered by residents is through legal action. Almost six months later, there are many unresolved issues including the cleanup of ash and dust from people’s homes and businesses.
“The report also states that the chief health officer, Rosemary Lester, failed to provide the timely advice to residents to relocate, despite having sufficient evidence to warrant this advice shortly after 16 February. Residents were exposed to extreme levels of fine particulate (PM2.5) pollution during the 10 days before this advice was eventually given. Rosemary Lester no longer has the confidence of the Latrobe valley community, and should resign as chief health officer.
“We fully support the inquiry’s proposals for a health conservation zone to significantly improve the health of the Latrobe valley community. We also support the proposal for a health advocate to be appointed to provide a voice for the community on health concerns.
“We demand a clear commitment from the state government and the opposition to implement the recommendations of the inquiry, and address the other ongoing concerns of the community.
“Questions for GDF Suez, the Victorian government and opposition:
“Will GDF commit to implement the six recommendations of the Hazelwood mine fire inquiry? When will they release their timeline for implementing these recommendations?
“Will the government and opposition commit to a timeline for implementing the recommendations of the inquiry?”
‘The sacrificial lamb of Victoria’
Local resident Lorraine Bull, 69, has been in touch with Guardian Australia. Bull has lived in Morwell on and off since 1957, and is now retired. These are her thoughts:
“The report is a fairly accurate reflection of what was presented in the inquiry because I attended the inquiry most of the time. It’s really disappointing that they didn’t make any recommendations about capping the coal. If you’ve still got exposed coal areas you’re still likely to get a fire in there, we still continually get dust every time the wind blows.
“Capping is just putting clay over it which reduces the exposure to the coal surface. Rehabilitation is doing a bit more by way of landscaping. If you put some clay over it, it restricts the areas that are open. If you look at the areas that burnt, they were totally uncapped.
“Personally, the fire didn’t have a huge health impact because I’m relatively healthy. I’ve gone to the trouble of sealing my house by replacing windows and putting insulation around the doors. I got less ash and smoke in my house than many other people. A lot of the houses here are old and housing commission-built so they leak like a sieve. Some people were finding piles of ash in their house and I had one occasion when I couldn’t see my back fence.
“I think we have our fingers crossed. Certainly GDF is making some progress with implementing some of the recommendations already in that they are putting in new sprinkler systems, I know that’s happening. I have decided I will join the class action [if it goes ahead].
“I call the valley and Morwell in particular the sacrificial lamb of Victoria. We seem to be ignored except when the government wants power generation. We are ignored when it comes to high unemployment. There are many social issues and we don’t seem to get much back when we produce so much wealth for Victoria.
“We’re not getting government support to bring other industries here. We’ve had so many proposals and studies that never go ahead. The only money the government gives is for coal development. We are digging up more coal. They are proposing we are start exporting brown coal – we in this area are contributing to climate change quite heavily. We then suffer from droughts and bushfires. To me it’s just totally ridiculous.
“The government is continuing to push coal in denialist mode on climate change, and we’re sitting here in the middle of three large coalmines in a bushfire-prone area and nothing is being done for us.”
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