Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has personally telephoned residents of the Williamtown ‘red zone’ to extend his sympathy, after their shock blood test results were revealed in the Newcastle Herald last week.
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Jamie and Samantha Kelly discovered their 10-month-old son William had “significant” levels of toxic firefighting chemicals in his blood; while Salt Ash farmer Len O’Connell was eleven times over the Australian average.
Mr Shorten said he had met with the Kelly family only two months ago and found their news “incredibly concerning”.
“Any parent would shudder in fear at the thought of their child being exposed like this,” he said.
“At such a distressing and uncertain time I wanted to personally make contact with some of the families I had met and relay my support.
“This government has been silent for too long on this and it's time for urgent action. Malcolm Turnbull must stop burying his head in the sand.”
Samantha Kelly was packing boxes – because the family has been approved to move into a new rental property in Newcastle – when she took Mr Shorten’s call.
“He said he was sorry to hear the news and that if it was his family, he would absolutely leave immediately.
“He promised me he would raise it in parliament this week. The fact that he took the time out to acknowledge what had happened – that felt good,” she said.
Ms Kelly said she had been “inundated with kindness” from the wider community since the story was published, while at least two dozen locals had contacted her privately with concerns about what their children’s blood levels might be.
“They were shocked by our result given where we live in the red zone,” she said.
“A lot of them said they were going to go and get their kids tested. They were scared because they didn’t originally think they would be affected.
“It’s just disappointing that people in positions of power to resolve this issue for the community have been deafeningly silent.”
Mr O’Connell’s son Mark took the call from Mr Shorten and “flew down” to the workshop to tell his father.
Len O’Connell said he was grateful for the Opposition Leader’s support and hoped it would intensify pressure on the federal government to act.
“At the present they just don’t want to know us.
“A call from Malcolm would be nice. I’m sure when he gets back from overseas he will probably ring.”
Labor Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson said she was “personally upset” to hear about the plight of the Kelly and O’Connell families and wrote to Defence Minister Marise Payne urging her to visit the area “a soon as possible.”