Page 4381 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 30 November 1994
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the border in New South Wales and the tardiness and reluctance to respond to complaints from citizens within the Territory in relation to noise emanating in the suburbs. I think there is a little bit of a double standard there, Minister, which you should take a little bit more interest in and be a bit more positive about. That concerns the Opposition greatly.
The problems at Faithfull Circuit, Kambah, relate to a business or a series of businesses operating out of No. 12. The residents have written to the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning on a number of occasions, including a letter signed by residents of the street and dated between 28 September and 4 October this year, and others sent more recently on 25 November and 27 November. I understand that the Minister was also spoken to at his Tuggeranong electoral office on, I believe, 21 October. The problems at Kambah are problems which I think are intolerable. Residents have to put up with them day in and day out and action does need to be taken. I am surprised that nothing has really happened for some three years.
Perhaps it is best if I simply list a couple of the concerns the residents have. They quote sections of the Territory Plan and the Land Act in terms of what people can and cannot do in running businesses from suburbs. We are always, I think, going to get some complaints in relation to people running businesses from suburbs. One of the points the department makes is that any business run from a suburb should not involve any activity which generates pollution, creates a health hazard or causes annoyance to neighbours in terms of the provisions specified in the Noise Control Act, the Air Pollution Act, the Water Pollution Act, the Pesticides Act and the Public Health Act. The residents of Faithfull Circuit have said that the business operating from No. 12 has been involved in commercial enterprises of one kind or another which have disrupted the zoning of the land. The residents there have a quite busy trash pack business or businesses which they operate from home, and that involves the storage, conveyance and removal of noxious and hazardous waste material. Much of that waste material has been left unprotected and unsecured in the front of the premises for days on end, and in front of the building line.
Residents who have not suffered any health problems before, over the last three years have suffered things such as suddenly getting fleas in their hair and allergies. A couple of households have suffered. One household with four young children under eight have noticed problems with their kids suddenly getting fleas in their hair. They noticed about that time that there were some rotting mattresses left outside the subject premises which could well have been a source of fleas and other vermin.
Another criterion in relation to running a business from home is that goods relating to the business are not displayed in the windows or outside the building and that the business does not result in the storage on the block of materials obtained for or generated by the business other than within the confines of the approved structures. The complaints are that items from the business have been left outside unsealed, and waste material has been left and stored on the block. Things such as fridges and old stoves have been stored outside. I have some photographs here which I will give to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning after this debate so that he can refer those to his department, if they do not have them, and they can investigate this further.
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