How many Transfield construction workers will die on Manus Island, Minister?

Project SafeCom Inc.
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Western Australia 6312
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How many Transfield construction workers will die on Manus Island, Minister?

Media Release
Monday February 10, 2014 6:00am WST
For Immediate Release
No Embargoes

"Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has a lot of questions to answer about the already commenced 2000-bed expansion of the Manus Island detention centre, and the questions start with why he has arrogantly remained entirely silent about the contents of a damning environmental assessment report about the planned extension to the Lombrum detention centre, commissioned by the Department of Immigration," WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom said today.

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Leaked report from Sinclair Knight Mertz, commissioned by the Department of Immigration
See http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2014/feb/04/manus-island-australian-immigration-and-asylum
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"There is no justification for Morrison's brazen refusal to tell the Australian people about the Manus Island extension - Lombrum is not "on water" and none of the information relates to "briefing people smugglers" as he has so often aggressively snapped at journalists or the ALP opposition."

"Scott Morrison needs to tell the Parliament and the Australian people, via the media and via the House of Representatives, if there are indeed grave risks to the Transfield workers now, and asylum seekers later, present in the form of buried "white substance", "unexploded ordnance", bombs, bullets, explosives, dangerous asbestos and any other buried poisons that might cause illness, injury and later physical disability through as yet unexplained illnesses and contamination to the bodies of workers and asylum seekers, as the report, now leaked to the media, suggests."

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Reported in "Manus Island: leaked report reveals hazards of processing centre expansion", by Paul Farrell and Oliver Laughland, The Guardian Australia, Tuesday 4 February 2014.
See http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/manus-island-leaked-report-reveals-extreme-risks-processing-centre-expansion
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"Unless Morrison can convince the Parliament and the Australian people and the construction workers - who have already started the work - that there is absolutely no danger at all to everyone involved, construction work on Manus Island needs to stop immediately. The fact that the Sinclair Knight Mertz report was leaked to reporters is in itself evidence that someone in the Immigration Department or amongst the consultants or someone in PNG is not happy, and even following that leak Morrison has taken no action whatsoever: Morrison needs to end his extremist mediaspin and Parliamentary aggression right now and humble himself in the knowledge that he is accountable to the Parliament and the Australian people, not by means of spouting his standard spinlines brought with his usual bullying demeanour and fanatic party-political zealotry."

"Either Morrison speaks up immediately and explains all aspects of the report, without spin or arrogance, or the construction workers should down tools and walk away from what should for now be regarded as the death trap on Manus Island," spokesman Jack H Smit concluded.

Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom Inc.
[phone number posted]

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