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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 5 Hansard (14 May) . . Page.. 1423 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

This issue has also brought to light the currently poor management of hazardous waste that exists around Australia. I am aware that there is a process occurring under the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council to decide on appropriate disposal techniques for certain types of hazardous waste, called scheduled wastes; but this deals with a limited range of hazardous wastes such as PCBs, HCBs and organochlorine pesticides. However, there is a whole range of hazardous wastes like Delan and other pesticides and industrial chemicals that are not scheduled but are hazardous nonetheless and need to be disposed of safely - and that is not just into landfills, but using disposal processes that contain and break down the toxic substances in the waste.

There are better ways of disposing of hazardous waste than by incineration. In the early 1990s, the Australian community rejected the idea of building a centralised high-temperature incinerator. I believe that the ACT community, if given the choice, would not want the Totalcare incinerator to become a major disposal facility for hazardous waste. There are a number of new waste disposal technologies that are becoming available and that could safely deal with hazardous waste on a decentralised basis. One example that has had some publicity recently is the plasma arc technology, which uses a plasma field of energy to break apart the chemical bonds in the hazardous material. I believe that Totalcare should be making every effort to examine these technologies. Mr Humphries, you said that they are doing that at the moment. That is very pleasing.

Mr Osborne's motion will go a long way towards allowing the public to find out exactly what is going on now at the incinerator and putting in place a system of public accountability for Totalcare's waste disposal operations. But this issue has highlighted the need for a major overhaul of the ACT's pollution control legislation. We have been waiting for some time for the Government to present its new environment protection legislation. Mr Humphries says that that will happen tomorrow, and that is wonderful. I understand that the Bill will be looking at such issues as the Totalcare incinerator, and we will be looking at it very closely as well.

We will not be supporting Mr Corbell's amendments as they stand, because we believe that they are unnecessary and impractical. Totalcare has already advised environment groups that it has no plans to incinerate any more pesticides in the foreseeable future. If it is not part of their core business, then I do not see why it is necessary for them to do so. That means that there is no need for the moratorium, because there is nothing to have a moratorium about. (Extension of time granted) We have been told that there is no stockpile of pesticides or agricultural chemicals at Totalcare.

Mr Berry: Did you believe that?

Mr Osborne: Who told you?

Mr Humphries: Obviously, she does not.

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