Liberal candidate for the seat of Port Stephens, Jaimie Abbott says she has worked on the Williamtown RAAF Base for 12 years.
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"If there are health impacts, I am certainly most interested in that," Ms Abbott said in a special interview with Herald journalist Scott Bevan ahead of the 2019 NSW election poll.
The Newcastle Herald has reported on up to 50 cases of cancer on Cabbage Tree Road, which runs parrallel to the base, since August 2017.
Cabbage Tree Road has been heavily polluted with toxic per- and poly-fluoroalkyl [PFAS] chemicals used in firefighting drills by Defence for more than three decades.
The 50th cancer case in the last 15 years has become Charlie Campbell, who died of a brain tumour last year at the age of 75.
Liz Campbell remembers discovering something was wrong with her father-in-law when they asked him to hold a newborn baby and he was too weak. Within a fortnight he was admitted to hospital, scans showing he had a rare form of brain cancer.
They tried to operate but it was too deep, Ms Campbell told the Herald in 2017.
On February 19, when asked how she thought residents should be compensated, Ms Abbott said the polluter must pay.
"I personally believe, the federal government and the Department of Defence needs to fix this."
Ms Abbott's opponent, Labor incumbent MP Kate Washington, said the issue was largely a federal one, but said there was more the state government could have done.
"There are things that I feel could have been done, and should have been done by the (state) government including perhaps telling people that their properties were contaminated when they first knew, which they didn't.