Basil Zempilas says Labor dragged ‘kicking and screaming’ into Perth Children’s Hospital lead confession

John Carey has defended a five-day delay in releasing the full results of recent testing that found lead in the water at Perth Children’s Hospital was almost four times the national benchmark for safety. It has been revealed the Cook Government was told about five new “exceedances” from as recent as last week late on Friday, only hours after Premier Roger Cook insisted contamination of the PCH water supply was “well and truly in the rear view mirror”. The Health Department said on Friday there were no exceedances after April 2024, and only revealed the results from August 5 and September 5 on Wednesday. Outside Parliament on Thursday, the Health Infrastructure Minister rejected Opposition claims the results were kept secret. “We sough to rectify that as soon as we could,” he said. “The Health Minister went into the Parliament and provided that information and has now also ordered that there be new protocols so that kind of situation doesn’t happen again.” Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said the Government was only transparent because it was forced to be. “Your newspaper is the reason we know about it, they didn’t come out and say it, they didn’t walk into Parliament and say it on their own,” he said. “They got dragged kicking and screaming to that point and that is unacceptable.” But he stopped short of questioning the Chief Health Officer’s advice that the PCH water is safe to drink. “Clearly, the Chief Health Officer has significant expertise in this area,” Mr Zempilas said. “What I would say on behalf of the people of WA, if there are outbreaks of lead in the water at any of our hospitals, please tell us when they happen.” In Question Time on Thursday, Mr Zempilas grilled Health Minister Meredith Hammat over whether anybody was exposed to the contaminated water, in areas “accessible to staff” and another “accessible to visitors”. “The Premier said yesterday you would be transparent about this matter, why won’t you answer the questions,” he asked. Ms Hammat said the Chief Health Officer’s advice was clear. “We have been transparent and that’s why we tabled the advice from the Chief Health Officer so that people could see the information and see his consideration,” she said. “He is the expert in relation to these matters and we’ll be guided by his opinion.” In a letter tabled in Parliament on Wednesday night, Dr Andrew Robertson said that water outlets at the impacted locations have been decommissioned. He said the water at PCH is “safe to drink” but didn’t explain whether there was any exposure before the outlets were turned off. “I have confidence in this testing. It is a proactive program so that the Child and Adolescent Health Service can undertake the necessary remediation when exceedances are detected,” Dr Robertson said. “Exceedances are typically isolated to specific outlets or fixtures, and do not impact the entire hospital water system.”