I should think there has to be a safe way to pump this rubbish out and for a lot less than the quoted $400.000.00, per home?
And safely dispose of it as forever deeply buried material!
Once all of the stuff is pumped/vacuumed out, any residual rubbish can be dealt with by the application of an overkill acrylic spray paint job! And inside all internal walls!
To permanently bind with and safely lock up any remaining contaminant!
This problem arose because none of the ministers or their advisers have/had any industry or trade experience whatsoever!?
In order to safely demolish a house the asbestos must first be entirely and safely removed!?
Pray tell then, what is achieved by also demolishing entirely asbestos free and still habitable homes; and or, how would "already affected" home owners be helped, by forcing them to demolish their thoroughly cleaned asbestos free homes, or only available habitation!?
Perhaps after relocating current owners/occupants, these homes should be just handed to the homeless, who would be safer there than sleeping rough and exposed to even worse, and much more immediate life threatening risks.
Rhrosty

Wow get the public service to do something and it turns expensive and bad, wow!
I just hope the green and labour MP's ensure ALL their constituents pay for it and they keep their thieving mitts out of our pockets!

I once found a couple of pieces of asbestos in my yard, so I placed them in a nylon bag and took them in my car to the local waste-depo.

Once I asked the attendant where to drop it, he became pale and confused and almost wet his pants. Eventually he threw some orange plastic at me with a bit of tape and told me to wrap the asbestos with this plastic (of course he wouldn't come close to it himself), then he asked me to hose it with a water-pipe, then to throw it on some van, then he charged me $51 for that.

Now what an incentive this is to not just throw the asbestos next time along with the normal garbage...

All it takes to solve the problem is simply to tell home-owners where they can throw the stuff for free... but what government would be willing to give up so easily such a major opportunity for hysteria!?

Yes, I have sympathy for the affected owners - not because of the asbestos itself which is no big deal, but because of the cancer called "government" which causes their hard-earned property to be of a negative value.

Oh that's pretty cheap, at least they are not trying to install set-top boxes!

what it really boils down to is the government in its wisdom allowed the use of asbestos in the building industry and industry at large I have pot stand designed to go over a hot plate lined with pure asbestos which has never been used before that I found in my mothers shed.It originally had a Woolworth price tag on it, There was never any doubt about the fact that asbestos was deadly. houses all over the country are growing old and beginning to fall to bits and councils are using the panic to charge extra, to dispose of something that should be handled as a public service. This is the responsibility of successive Australian governments.