Barry Goldsmith was still going through the  full report on Friday when contacted by The Courier.  

The report was released in full to the public for the first time earlier this week.

Mr Goldsmith said he was happy to see the final report come to fruition.  

“I think everybody will be, the workers of course but there will also be a lot of others who have been in the inquiry and there will be a lot of outsiders interested in it as well,” he said. 

“It is pretty much what I expected.”

The Courier first revealed concerns surrounding the region's former Lands Department spray programs and practices back in September 2014, and has pushed strongly for further action by government ever since, with the Toxic Legacy campaign. 

The central finding in the report is that prior to 1981, it is plausible that exposure to a contaminant of 2,4,5-T called TCDD may cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma or soft sarcoma. 

However, the report also makes it clear that due to there being so many causes of cancer it is impossible to be certain that this exposure was definitely the cause. 

One of the key recommendations to come from the report is for the government to check current and former sprayers for a history of chloracne, soft tissue sarcome and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and consider a policy response for those who have contracted those conditions. 

The report also recommends updating the 1980s Worker Heath Study for the same group of sprayers talked to as part of the inquiry and comparing it with with Victorian Cancer Registry for evidence of causation. 

Mr Goldsmith said now the inquiry was complete it was up to the government to finish it off and present its response as soon as possible. 

“There is no use holding and burying it, they need to finish it off properly,” he said.

“It is good the government has done it, I am pretty pleased but we can just see where it goes from here.”

The government is now expected to respond to the findings early next year.