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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (12 October) . . Page.. 2922 ..
MS TUCKER (continuing):
Therefore, the CFMEU placed a ban on the dumping of floc on the tip face and commissioned their own testing of the floc to find out what was in it. However, they were not in a position to stop the floc being delivered to the landfill, so the trucks continued to dump their loads on a vacant area of the site. Over September some 2,000 tonnes of floc were stockpiled on the site while ACT Waste management sat back and did nothing. The test results were not received by the CFMEU until 21 September. The tests showed that the level of most heavy metals was less than the National Environment Protection Council guidelines for soil contamination, but that the lead levels were five to nine times higher than the guidelines. These results were forwarded to ACT Waste on 21 September. ACT Waste management finally acted two days later - not to accept the CFMEU's test results, but merely to commission their own tests. However, they did at least act to stop the acceptance of more floc at the landfill until the results of their testing were known.
The issue became public through an article in the Canberra Times on 24 September; but, rather than address the issue, the Minister went into damage control, putting out a press release on that day that totally misrepresented the situation. The release stated:
... on 1 September 1999 one load of this waste was found to have had some unusual characteristics ... and, in conjunction with OH&S officers, the material was collected for analysis.
Apart from the wrong date, there was no mention of the fact that it was the CFMEU, not ACT Waste, that had initiated this testing. It is also a fact that it was not just one load of this waste that was tested. The CFMEU OH&S officer who took the samples has advised me that he took samples from across some five truckloads of floc that was still exposed on the tip face that day. The release also said:
... previous testing before there was agreement to accept this waste showed the material was suitable for disposal at the rubbish dump.
However, I understand that this testing was not done by ACT Waste; it was done by Metalcorp and the results were supplied to ACT Waste. It seems that ACT Waste is quite prepared to trust the testing done by the company but not the testing done by the union. I also understand that there has never been any follow-up testing during the time that the floc has been dumped at Belconnen. The release also said:
The load in question has been quarantined at the rubbish dump ...
It would be very hard to describe the 2,000 tonnes of floc that was stockpiled at the tip as one load. The release also said:
As soon as management was alerted by staff of this concern, it acted and undertook the process of testing the questionable load.
That is not correct. Management did not decide to do this testing until three weeks after the CFMEU raised concerns. In the meantime, some 2,000 tonnes of floc were being stockpiled, uncovered, at the landfill. Last Friday the results of the Government's testing
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