I note the Committee’s concern over the role played by the media in its coverage of both this inquiry and cancer clusters more generally. I disagree with the Committee’s view regarding media coverage of this and other possible cancer clusters. The media has a legitimate role to play, not only as a voice for those Australians who suffer with cancer, their friends, and their relatives; but also as a defender of the public interest in holding governments and administrators to account. In many cases, the efforts of investigative journalists are the only hope of ordinary citizens who have no other way of making governments and administrators take their concerns seriously.
I was very pleased that the Morrison Government committed to a parliamentary inquiry into a possible cancer cluster on the Bellarine, if re-elected, prior to the 2019 federal election. The media played an important role in giving the Barwon Heads community, in particular, a voice and it is regrettable that the Committee saw fit to criticise the media in this way. This is not to say that the media always get it right, or that journalists are infallible. However, it is to say that any attempt to hinder or otherwise discourage media coverage of issues important to communities must be treated with considerable scepticism.
The Committee notes that the media’s ‘simple language’ often ‘obscures … scientific reality’. Notwithstanding this claim and the comments of several witnesses including the Victorian Department of Health which was the focus of some of these criticisms, I am not persuaded and nor did the evidence support the proposition that the media coverage of the concerns of the Bellarine Peninsula community was inaccurate, misleading or simple.
In fact, the report notes on many occasions that media reports were the main, if not the only, source of information for the Victorian Department of Health and other government organisations about cancer rates on the Bellarine peninsula. It is passing strange for the Committee to note the obvious importance of media coverage to government departments seeking scientific data about possible cancer clusters, only to then voice its concern about media coverage obscuring scientific ‘reality’.
The fact is that scientific ‘reality’ continues to change, depending on the quality and quantity of evidence available to scientists. This phenomenon is to be welcomed, as it is the key to our trust that scientific results continue to be impartial and apolitical. It is certainly the basis of the practical success of scientific endeavours in the modern world. There is every chance that the future may provide us with more and higher quality evidence about the causes and prevalence of cancer clusters. There is every chance that some of our contemporary scientific conclusions about them will be proven wrong including in relation to causation of cancers and other illnesses. It is almost a certainty that government departments will continue to be affected by human error, incompetence or more serious failings. We should be thankful that our media, a fundamental tenet of Australia’s democracy, will be there to remind us of these things.
Finally, I wish to thank the residents of the Bellarine Peninsula and Barwon Heads, in particular, who participated in this inquiry. As I declared at the public hearing held in Barwon Heads, I am a member of this community. I reiterate the Committee’s condolences to the families and friends of those who have tragically lost loved ones. For many, this inquiry has been an extremely difficult and painful journey. For some, I recognise that this inquiry will not provide closure or all of the answers.