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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4691 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

Environmental tests were done and the results were 1,000 times better than we should be. Today the saga continues. Everything is within the environmental guidelines. On the basis of the analysis undertaken, it is most unlikely that the sullage ponds at the Belconnen landfill constitute a health risk to workers on the site.

Small waste collection businesses are the main users of the sullage ponds. The ponds are a vital part of the waste management system for handling oil and grease trap waste and are managed under environmental licence for the landfill. Stopping access to the facility may lead to the improper disposal of these wastes, with significant environmental consequences - and I am sure that members would be concerned about that - or may even put small operators out of business. Neither outcome is in the interests of the community, and therefore I encourage the CFMEU to reconsider their position in relation to this matter.

Mr Speaker, it continues. The CFMEU have gone via the media. They have come nowhere near me. I have invited them to come in and show me exactly what they have. Mr Berry has tabled a report from some organisation at Spotswood in Melbourne that has come into town and done some tests. I do not know what tests they have done. We do not know whether they have compared the sludge pit with a rose garden outside Parliament House. I can tell you that the sludge pit will smell worse than the rose garden outside Parliament House, because it is a contaminated site. In terms of the contaminated sites, though, Mr Speaker, let me reiterate that, under all the tests that we can do, so far it comes up clean.

However, just to be sure, today I wrote to my colleague Mr Humphries, the Minister for the Environment, and I have asked the Pollution Control Authority to do independent tests on the pond as a matter of urgency. All I have asked the independent authority to do is to compare its tests with the tests from this mob in Spotswood somewhere in Victoria, whom no-one has ever heard of, by the way. No-one has come near the department to say, "Have a look at the tests we have done". If there is anything there that should not be there, we will have it removed. But if tests continue to show me that it fits in with all occupational health and safety standards, obviously the CFMEU will stand up publicly in the media and say, "We are sorry; we were wrong".

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, I wonder whether the Chief Minister would bring a handkerchief into the chamber each day and wipe the froth from the Minister's mouth each time he mentions the CFMEU.

MR SPEAKER: Ask your supplementary question without preamble and without insult, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: Do you accept that dangerous chemicals which exceed both the EPA and ANZAAS guidelines are worthy of urgent action?

MR DE DOMENICO: Could you please sit down while I answer the question. Mr Speaker, I do not have a degree in chemical engineering or environmental engineering. I am not a QC, an actuary or anything else. Once the experts go in there and independently check the tests, I will come back and report to this place; but I can say that

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