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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1413 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I will have prepared an inventory of all waste material currently being stored at Totalcare for incineration ... I will undertake to have Totalcare management establish a similar recording system -

that is, a manifest similar to the one which records all wastes received from interstate for incineration -

for all wastes received for incineration from within the ACT.

I also said:

The temperature at which the incinerator is operating is already monitored. I will have established a system which records which substances are incinerated on each day. We will be able to correlate the temperatures of the incinerator with the things that have been burnt in it at a particular time.

Mr Speaker, I can advise the Assembly that I have adhered to this undertaking. Data for the first month have now been collected; they are being assembled in a readable form; and I will be in a position to table the data in the Assembly tomorrow, in the form which Mr Osborne has sought.

As I indicated at that time, the reporting requirements will be incorporated into the voluntary code of practice to be followed by Totalcare, and that is in anticipation of their seeking an authorisation under the proposed environment protection legislation which I will be presenting to the Assembly tomorrow. In a sense, Mr Speaker, there is much change going on in this area; but I think that, when members see the Environment Protection Bill tomorrow, much of this will be clear, and they will have an opportunity to understand the framework in which the Government proposes henceforth to make decisions about dealing with dangerous materials or materials that could cause pollution or environmental harm.

I want to respond specifically to the eight points of Mr Osborne's motion, to indicate what is already happening in this area as a result of the issues raised by Mr Osborne. In respect of the first paragraph, an inventory of all waste material being stored on site for incineration has been prepared and is included in the report I will table tomorrow. In relation to the second paragraph, records are being kept of all waste material coming onto the site for incineration and of the temperatures at which the incinerator is operating.

In respect of the third paragraph, there are currently no contracts signed or under consideration for the storage and subsequent incineration of pesticides. In respect of the fourth paragraph, the only pesticides incinerated at Totalcare in recent years were one shipment each of Delan and Propoxur in early 1996. These shipments have already been discussed at length in the Assembly and elsewhere. In respect of the fifth paragraph, Totalcare has agreed to a moratorium on the incineration of pesticides pending the implementation of the proposed Environment Protection Bill. Any incineration of pesticides after that time would need to be permitted under the conditions of its authorisation.

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