Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has defended the 18-month delay in making public a scathing report on the ACT government's response to the Mitchell chemical fire.
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The independent report found that authorities failed to test for two toxic substances after the 2011 inferno at the Energy Services Invironmental chemical plant.
The review urged continuing testing of the site for toxins and any effects on the surrounding environment and livestock.
The report was completed in April 2012 but the government waited 18 months to publish it, releasing it on Thursday afternoon going into the Christmas shutdown.
As chief minister, Ms Gallagher has promoted a philosophy of open and transparent government but on Friday she said that did not mean information had to be released straight away.
"Nothing is worse or better off because that information is released yesterday rather than three months ago when it would have gone through cabinet," she said.
"Open government is releasing information, not releasing the minute you get information." Ms Gallagher agreed there had been a delay in the publication of the information.
"I'm not the minister responsible but it came to cabinet a couple of months ago," the chief minister said.
"There was mixed views across agencies about what the right response was at the time.
"I agree there's been a delay.
"There's certainly no conspiracy theory … other than the government sought further advice from agencies about what the report found."
The University of Queensland report found the government did not conduct enough testing and analysis ''to cover two of the major potential contaminant types of concern to the Canberra community''.
The review found the government had not clearly mapped where it conducted testing after the fire. The government also failed to take duplicate samples from the site - a process that would ensure results from laboratory testing could be checked.
The review criticises the government's communication to the broader community during the fire.
It urges the government to develop a manual with clear protocols for chemical disasters.
It also suggests the government develop contingency arrangements for emergency response agencies that serve industries such as the ESI plant that store toxic materials.
Ms Gallagher said the government was better equipped to deal with similar disasters in future.
"I would say, having been sitting around the cabinet table for a while, you do try to prepare for every emergency," she said.
"A chemical fire at Mitchell was not one we had extensive planning around.
"I will accept that even on the day the government's response at times, because it wasn't covered off in some of our planning, we certainly learnt lessons from it."