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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (17 April) . . Page.. 996 ..

MR HIRD (12.19): Mr Speaker, I move:

That this Assembly calls on the Minister for Urban Services to give due consideration to conducting a feasibility study to upgrade the Mitchell Waste Disposal Station to accommodate surplus household waste.

With the rapid growth of Gungahlin and added pressure from parts of Belconnen, consideration should be given to whether there is a need for more facilities for the disposal of household waste in that immediate area. There is a recycling centre at Mitchell, but it does not provide for the disposal of household waste. It is only a small recycling centre with facilities for recycling glass, paper, cardboard and plastic. There is unlimited space in the centre which would allow for extension of services already provided. I would like to see a plan put in place to upgrade the existing facilities to include provision for the disposal of household waste at the Mitchell disposal station. I commend the motion to members of the parliament for their consideration.

MR MOORE (12.20): Mr Speaker, I had expected Mr Hird to speak for a little longer. I was just drawing up my amendment to the motion. The amendment reads, That we add the following words, "to be located at the site of the old Ainslie Transfer Station". I think that makes good sense. Mr Hird's motion reveals the stupid action of the Government in closing the Ainslie Transfer Station. Mr Hird has pointed, once again, to his own Government's inadequacy. That is exactly what has happened. They closed the Ainslie Transfer Station and then, less than a year later, we have Mr Hird saying in this Assembly, "We do not have an adequate disposal station to accommodate surplus household waste and maybe we should put it at Mitchell, two or three kilometres away from the Ainslie Transfer Station". It just reflects their inadequacy.

Mr Speaker, I move this amendment, which I hope that I will be able to circulate in my name:

That the following words be added to the motion: "to be located at the former Ainslie Transfer Station".

Mr Speaker, I apologise to members. I got a little involved in the previous debate and thought that this debate would not come on, but that if it did Mr Hird would take time to give a whole series of reasons as to why that would be necessary. I would have thought, Mr Speaker, that he would have talked about the distances that people now have to drive in order to get to the various tip sites in the ACT and the impact that that has had on the environment. I thought he would have dealt with issues such as people tipping rubbish in spots where they ought not go. I thought he would also have dealt with the highly successful recycling and bin system that we have now. I must say that I was quite critical of that system; but, having seen it in operation, I think most people would accept that it works. I believe that it was mostly Mr Connolly's work but it was completed in the end by Mr Lamont. I believe that it has worked extremely successfully.

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