Member for Burdekin Dale Last has slammed the state government for failing to keep the Ayr community safe after it was found that the historic use of firefighting foam had caused carcinogenic compounds to leach into the town’s drinking water.

In the same week that saw funding committed to remediate Ayr’s PFAS contamination mentioned in the state budget for the first time, a report commissioned by QFES in 2019 and revised in 2020 has been brought to the fore.  Mr Last said the fact the current and previous Minsters for QFES had allowed the Burdekin to be left in the dark for five years over the extent and origins of drinking water contamination was a disgrace.

“It speaks volumes to this community as to just how far this Minister and the former minister were willing to go to sweep the contamination of a drinking water source under the rug when the webpage hosting the link to the report was updated just days before remediation works are committed to in the budget. Especially when you examine the 2023 report by the local council which raised concerns that no QFES investigation into the issue had been made public at the time,” Mr Last said.

“The Burdekin community won’t be fooled by a line item in the state budget after having to wait five years for a report from QFES into the cause of the contamination to see the light of day all while the local council are left switching bores off and doing what they can to ensure people in Ayr can still have safe drinking water when they turn the tap on.”

“The first this community has known of this issue was in 2018 and since then the local council has been unable to adequately plan for a future water source because the current Minister and her predecessor have failed to make the extent of the contamination public.”

Mr Last said since the first contamination was made public his main focus has been to work with council and do what was needed to ensure the Burdekin’s water supply was secure for the future. 

“As the Member for Burdekin I have asked questions on several occasions with only partial amounts of information forthcoming which when we are talking about the security and safety of an entire township’s water supply is simply not good enough,” Mr Last said.

“It’s pretty clear Labor has been happy to leave a community in the dark and a local council in the lurch especially given the potential health effects on residents.”