Environment Minister Ian Hunter has brushed off a no-confidence motion against him as a “political stunt”.
The Liberals won support yesterday from non-government members of the upper house for the no-confidence motion, “in light of his incompetent management of the investigation into the chemical contamination and threats to residents’ health in the environs of Clovelly Park and Mitchell Park”.
State Liberal Leader Steven Marshall then called on Premier Jay Weatherill to sack the Minister for “his ongoing failure and competence in managing this crisis”.
In a statement later, Hunter said the no-confidence vote was about politics.
“Today’s motion is a political stunt – it’s not about what’s in the best interests of people living in Clovelly Park and Mitchell Park,” he said.
“Putting the residents first is what we’ve endeavoured to do throughout this process.”
A new community reference group involving residents is holding its first meeting with the Environment Protection Authority today.
Hunter said Housing SA had met with tenants in all 23 public housing properties to discuss their relocation, with the first offers of relocation to be made “in the near future”.
The Minister has been under pressure since the government was blind-sided by the Opposition with revelations that 25 Clovelly Park homes would need to be evacuated due to contamination from the carcinogenic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) from industrial sites.
Much of the local anger has concerned communication failures, with residents not told about the raised TCE levels inside their homes for about six weeks after the government received testing results showing vapours were above World Health Organisation guideline levels.
During a budgets estimates hearing on Monday, Hunter was accused of dodging questions on the groundwater and air contamination by taking a 14-minute “toilet break”. He later promised to “co-design a new engagement paradigm” to improve communications with residents.
“Clearly the communication process to date hasn’t worked, and we have acknowledged that,” he said yesterday. “We are working to improve the level of communication with residents.”
Last week, the EPA expanded its testing zone to cover more than 1000 homes in the southern suburbs which could be affected by contamination. The following day, Premier Weatherill personally apologised to Clovelly Park residents about his government’s communication failures.
