Little being done to protect health of northern residents FORUM

more chronic health conditions, whilst asthma runs rampant.

Well, I don’t think this is good enough, as the damage has already begun with bushland being bulldozed for the proposed 52,000 new homes thus increasing the population by a conservative 130,000 new residents without any indication of any new infrastructure.

The NSW Government has announced that “an even brighter future for regional NSW, focusing on economic growth that promotes wellbeing in regional communities whilst minimising Big City characteristics of traffic congestion, pollution and affordability issues”.

I have requested a meeting with Ms Parker for the northern part of the Central Coast and have been rejected, asking me to contact her office in a couple of months, by then after the State election.

It is obvious that both major political parties have done little over the past decades for the northern communities of the Central Coast when report after report finds that each community has 16.9 percent of their population having three or

This somehow does not gel with me, as their own bipartisan Legislative Council Public Works Committee found that they, the government, fell short in protecting the regional communities and put forward

16 recommendations during a 2021 inquiry, none of which have been completed to date. The government inquiry stated “that the committee agrees with the inquiry participants that little research, if any, has been conducted on the impacts and long-term consequences in relation to the health of communities residing near coal ash dams. We are disappointed with the response by the NSW EPA and NSW Health to community concerns about a potential link between the circulation of additional metals in the air and waterways, and impacts on health outcomes for the community. This response, in conjunction with the lack of research conducted to date on this matter, demonstrates a complete disregard by the government towards the health of its citizens”.

The question must be asked before the State election: What have the current state and federal members on the Central Coast done to remedy the community’s concerns, when three doctors from Lake Munmorah wrote to the government regarding the high proportion of school children having chronic asthma some

37 years ago?

I feel ashamed that very few people have taken up the fight for a democratic Central Coast and simply take what is given to them.

I believe there is enough evidence that the government and some major businesses have a complete disregard towards the health of the Central Coast citizens and that a further public inquiry is warranted, if not a class action against the government. Email, Feb 21 Gary Blaschke OAM, Lake Munmorah