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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 560 ..

MS HORODNY: My question is to Mr Humphries, Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Mr Humphries, I would like to follow up on your response earlier to the report by the Conservation Council, the National Toxic Network and Greenpeace that, in February 1996, 2,300 kilograms of the fungicide Delan was incinerated at the Mitchell incinerator and that 3,000 kilograms of pesticide containers were incinerated there in late 1995. Of course, you would be aware, and you did mention, that the critical thing is the temperature of 1,100 degrees to minimise the amount of cyanide in the emissions. What records do you have to show that the Mitchell incinerator always burns at the necessary temperature, the very high temperature of 1,100 degrees, that will destroy all the toxic substances that could potentially be released from the waste burnt there? What emission standards does the Mitchell incinerator have to comply with under the Air Pollution Act? What emission testing regime is applied at Mitchell in terms of the chemicals that are tested, and how regularly are tests undertaken?

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I am glad to see that Ms Horodny is following up where the Conservation Council left off, but I should make a point about the question she has asked. Issues like this incinerator not reaching the required temperature, or whatever other excuses might be found to justify claims made about cyanide raining down on the citizens of Gungahlin or North Canberra, are not issues that have been raised so far. Ms Horodny talks about a report. I am not aware of any report. All I have seen is a one-page press release with a one-page attachment. If there is a report, it has not been supplied to me, the Minister for the Environment, by the Conservation Council.

There is a very important point to make about this. We in this place are always being dumped on, including by the ACT Greens, for not consulting. Here is a report supposedly pointing out huge danger to the citizens of Canberra through environmental pollution, and what do the Conservation Council and their colleagues do about that information? They do not come to the environment protection authorities, to the Minister for the Environment, to the Planning and Environment Committee of the Assembly or to any other body. They issue a release without discussing the issue, without talking it through, without raising it and saying, "What are you doing about these sorts of issues?". That is irresponsible.

Ms Horodny: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. My question related to what records you have to prove that the incinerator burns at the correct temperature. The onus is on you to prove that.

MR HUMPHRIES: I will answer that question. Let me say, though, that the onus is on anybody who issues a press release about environmental danger to get their facts right. The Conservation Council and their colleagues have not got their facts right on this matter.

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