A Recipe for Disaster – You Heard it Here First 

           "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars,

              but in ourselves..."

Did you know that from 2007 backwards, all asbestos records held by the Construction Division of the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Planning and Infrastructure Division in Tennant Creek, have reportedly been destroyed?

Why was the document containing this information, ordered sealed from both the public and NT legislators?

Why hasn’t there been an investigation into this and those responsible held accountable?

Why is it that the NT Government claimed to have kept a register of asbestos disposal sites in all remote communities – and when we recently asked to see it, after some initial confusion, they quickly took the website information down and said there was no such register? The only logical confusion is that they thought they kept a register, but they hadn't. How can they get it so wrong on something so important?

Why is it that local Territory councils are supposed to keep records of asbestos disposal sites, ensure that it is disposed of properly and record the GPS location, yet there is no law enforcing it and no government agency overseeing it? With no accountability or oversite, we know for a fact that some remote councils have been grossly negligent on this issue – not to mention the NT Education Department.

As a result, the Northern Territory is dotted with asbestos disposal sites and nobody knows where they are.

This is a recipe for disaster.

This is more than two teachers asking if their school is safe and the NT Education Department refusing to tell us.  Ask yourself why?  Why wouldn't they tell us for 8-months whether my family and the sudents I had a duty of care to protect, had been exposed to asbestos?  The answer should be obvious.  Arrogance? Apathy?  Racism?  Lack of accountability?  Fear of people finding out that DET needlessly exposed Indigenous children to asbetsos by failing to act promptly? Try all of the above.