The PFAS contamination scandal has become yet another stark example of how governments like to set rules but behave like those same rules don't apply to them.
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In this case, we could be talking about a range of rules that are needed for society to function properly. They could be rules related to the law, ethics or common decency.
People need a code to live by, a set of values that anchors them to day-to-day life.
When a government breaches this code, smashes those values and ignores its own laws with arrogance and indifference, the people that this government presides over will feel massively let down, disrespected and forgotten. They will suffer.
Which brings us to the people of Williamtown and, more broadly, the people of the Hunter who feel their fellow citizens' pain about the way the federal government has treated them.
The Defence Department has started its third inquiry in four years into PFAS contamination.
Lindsay Clout, Fullerton Cove resident and president of the national Coalition Against PFAS, put it succinctly when he said the government's latest move was a "farce".
"A government inquiry into a government inquiry that the government has refused to respond to," he said.
A Senate inquiry recommended a compensation scheme and the possibility of buybacks for affected residents. Yet the government starts another inquiry?
Meanwhile, the PFAS problem has further widened in the Hunter.
Our Lady Of Lourdes Primary School at Tarro - which has about 235 students - will have to wait at least a month to learn the level of PFAS present on its grounds.
Fire and Rescue NSW distributed a fact sheet to families that it had "recently become aware" that firefighting foam containing PFAS was used in past training activities on land that became part of the school in 2014.
Pollution is one of the world's most pressing problems. The Hunter, for its part, has experienced more than its fair share of past and present pollution.
What's difficult for many residents to comprehend is how apathetic and pathetic the reaction of many politicians can be towards pollution.
It's equally as bad when bureaucrats, who take home big pay packets from taxpayers, actively work against tax dollars being spent to deal with pollution.
When we talk about people needing values, ethics and a code to live by, some of these bureaucrats and politicians appear to seriously lack these things.
As civilisation advances, humans must find new, innovative ways to prevent pollution and clean-up legacy pollution.
For humanity to prosper, politicians and bureaucrats who work against progress in this area should be stripped of their power.
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