Ex-senior watchdog staffer says NSW asbestos crisis ‘destined to happen’ after decade of regulatory failure

Jason Scarborough is a former EPA investigator who wrote a paper in 2013 that warned widespread breaches by industry meant potentially contaminated product might have been applied to land across NSW. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

A former senior New South Wales environment watchdog officer says the state’s widening asbestos contamination crisis was “destined to happen” after the regulator failed to act on problems in the waste recovery sector uncovered more than a decade ago.

Jason Scarborough was a senior waste compliance officer at the NSW Environment Protection Authority from 2009 t0 2018. He now runs his own consultancy providing advice on regulatory matters.