Qld:Erin Brockovich helps Bindi and unearths Oz enviro disasters

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2009
Qld:Erin Brockovich helps Bindi and unearths Oz enviro disasters

By Angela Harper

BRISBANE, Aug 16 AAP - US environmental crusader Erin Brockovich is set to help Bindi
Irwin save Steve's Place and unearth a swag of environmental disasters on Australian soil.

The famous blonde, whose activist work was thrown into the spotlight after Julia Roberts'
portrayal of her in a self-titled movie, is teaming up with an Aussie law firm to fight
for the community and right wrongdoings.

Ms Brockovich said communities throughout Australia, including some near Sydney, Melbourne
and in Queensland, were already experiencing environmental problems with pesticides and
Chromium VI. She plans to help throw these into the spotlight.

In Australia Chromium VI is used to make bricks and linings for furnaces. Its compounds
are used for chrome plating, manufacture of dyes, wood and water treatment. It is also
used in galvanising, printing, paints, degreasers and rust converters.

Long-term exposure to Chromium VI, through absorption and inhalation, can adversely
affect health including causing cancer and problems to respiratory and immune systems.

"These problems already exist (in Australia). That is why I feel my work is so important,"

Ms Brockovich told a press conference in Brisbane.

"People are already coming to me with these problems and you won't know, and they won't
know and their neighbours won't know unless we start talking about it.

"Awareness is the key."

And although she branded lawyers as "blood-sucking back-stabbing bastards" Ms Brockovich
said communities needed their help.

Ms Brockovich also flew over the Queensland coast after the massive oil spill in March
and was already working with communities to provide advice on litigation, give support
to those affected and act as a conduit between government, lawyers and the community.

More than 200,000 members of a community are also pulling together and have signed
a petition to protect another Queensland site, known by some as Steve's Place, named after
the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

Ms Brockovich joins the likes of Russell Crowe in the campaign to stop mining giant
Cape Alumina from mining the Cape York site in far north Queensland.

"I'm helping Bindi with her plight in what's going on out there," Ms Brockovich said
when asked if she is involved in the dispute.

Cape Alumina has been conducting environmental studies on a 135,000-hectare pastoral
lease on Cape York. It won a court battle to access about 15 per cent of the property
which was purchased by Steve Irwin's family company Silverback Properties after Irwin's
death in 2006.

Terri Irwin has strongly condemned the planned mine and says it will destroy a pristine
environment, including the Wenlock River.

Cape Alumina boss Paul Messenger said the move to enlist Ms Brockovich's help was nothing
but a publicity stunt.

"I guess it's another stunt from the Irwin stunt machine," Mr Messenger told AAP.

"They're not interested in conservation, that's quite clear. If they were they'd be
sitting down and talking to the stakeholders."

He had issued an open invitation to Steve's widow, Terri Irwin, to discuss the matter
but she had never approached the company with her concerns.

Mr Messenger said the land belongs to its traditional indigenous owners and the late
Steve Irwin had never set foot upon the land in question at Pisolite Hills.

Cape Alumina said it had permission to mine the land about three years prior to Irwin's
widow Terry being granted the land.

The company expects mining operations to begin in 2013.

Comment was being sought from Terri Irwin.

AAP ahe/mmr

KEYWORD: BROCKOVICH (FILE PIX AVAILABLE)

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