Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1414 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Speaker, it has been suggested to me today that, in fact, Totalcare would be happy for a moratorium, or perhaps a ban outright, to occur on the incineration of pesticides in the incinerator. The position is that they have not burnt any such material since the beginning of last year and they may not be looking to burn any such material for quite some time to come. I am told that, from time to time, containers which previously contained these sorts of chemicals are burnt and, naturally enough, they contain, at the time, some residue of the previous pesticides or chemicals that they had at the time. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am not entirely sure where we leave ourselves if we agree to a permanent ban on the burning of those pesticides or agricultural chemicals. So, I am not entirely sure yet what to do about Ms Horodny's amendment before the house; but I will come back to that perhaps in the further debate on this motion.

In respect of the sixth paragraph of Mr Osborne's motion, the Pollution Control Authority is reviewing current developments in monitoring post-scrubber gas emissions in Australia and overseas to determine monitoring requirements for the incinerator. These will be included as conditions in Totalcare's authorisation under the Environment Protection Bill which I will introduce in the Assembly tomorrow. So, these things will have to be addressed when the authorisation is sought to conduct these activities.

In respect of paragraph (7), under the existing legislation, the officers of the Pollution Control Authority can and do undertake random inspections of the Totalcare incinerator. These powers will be enhanced under the proposed Bill I have referred to. In respect of paragraph (8), as I indicated earlier, in the Assembly tomorrow I will be tabling the first month's data. Subsequent records will be available from the Pollution Control Authority. Public disclosure of this information will be a requirement of Totalcare's authorisation under the proposed Environment Protection Bill.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this debate, as put to us today, is fairly concise and confined to the issues which Mr Osborne has raised in this place. I want to thank Mr Osborne for raising the issues in this way, because it stands in contrast to the way in which the debate has been conducted by some others, particularly outside this place. There are some very serious allegations that have been made about the operation of the incinerator. I want to emphasise that, although it is perfectly legitimate for members of the public and members of this Assembly to place concerns before the Assembly, before the Government and before me as Minister, and to have us address those issues in a calm and appropriate fashion, it is quite another thing to run a public campaign based on information which has the potential, if not the actual effect, of considerably alarming members of the public about the nature of material which is being emitted by the chimneys at Totalcare at Mitchell. So, I hope that in this debate today I will be able to put to rest the campaign of misinformation which has recently been waged against that incinerator, concerning pesticides in particular.

That campaign, obviously, was run by the former director of the Conservation Council. The Toxics Network was also involved. It appeared to be aimed at closing down the Totalcare incinerator. I understand that Mr Darlington, the former director, had either threatened or boasted that this was his aim. Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to make it

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .