In a meeting with residents over Williamtown RAAF contamination, Mr Marles said Defence shouldn’t fulfill its duties at the expense of its neighbours.

“How the Defence footprint impacts on the Australian community is fundamental to the standing of the Defence Forces within our nation,” he said.

Paterson MP Meryl Swanson joined Mr Marles on his first official outing as shadow minister.

The Victorian MP, who was Minister for Trade in 2013 and Parliamentary Secretary for Foreip gn Affairs before that, appeared moved by the personal stories of hardship at Salt Ash within the red zone.

“You can’t listen to the stories, as we have now, of people’s lives being so dramatically affected, without being acutely aware of how absolutely important it is to have this resolved as quickly as possible,” he said.

“People have concerns right through the spectrum of their daily lives from the food their children are eating through to their property values.

“They’re [also] talking about significant impacts on their businesses. There were a couple of fishers at the meeting today, and for those people there are a number who haven’t had their boats on the water in a year and that has a dramatic impact on their ability to make a living.”

Mr Marles also weighed in on the class action Gadens Lawyers confirmed it would pursue last week to recoup financial losses.

“Part of living in a society like we do is precisely so that they have those legal processes available to them,” he said.

“When you talk about governments and the way they engage with legal processes they ought to be operating as model litigants

“Governments ought to be operating in a way so that if liability is found... then governments should act quickly, expeditiously and fully in the way these issues are resolved.” 

Ms Swanson said she would work closely with Mr Marles in coming weeks.

“The Defence Department has said that it is going engage NSW Health and that they will be drawing blood within six weeks, and we will be keeping them to that,” Ms Swanson said.

The clock is also running on the Coalition Government’s $55 million suite of promises made at the election, a review of EnHealth safe drinking water standards and a possible epidemiological study to trace future health developments.  

“These are commitments that the government has made and they must be held steadfast to these,” Ms Swanson said.