Page 3813 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Are there any other tenants at Parkwood Road Recycling Estate that are behind in rental payments or have materials that are not being processed at an expected rate.
I await the answer to that question. I have been aware of issues about fuel stockpiles at the Parkwood Road recycling estate and have raised these issues on a number of occasions. I have written letters about a specific operator, I have requested meetings, I have submitted questions and I have raised the issue in estimates. It is appropriate that I read into Hansard an exchange with the former Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and his advisers on 20 May at the estimates hearing last year—it can be found on page 659:
MR COE: Are all operators on leased land out at Parkwood treated the same way in terms of the standards they have to keep, especially with regard to fuel issues from a fire point of view?
Mr Perram: They are treated equally. The timing and the authority in charge of those leases are different. Property, for example, are acting on two other matters that we are aware of, almost adjacent to this site, but their timing is slightly behind ours. The actual approach is similar, if not the same.
MR COE: What I am getting at, I guess, is whether the stockpiles of fuel of the operator in question are similar to the stockpiles of other operators.
Mr Ware: The stockpiles in question are similar to those of other operators. As Mr Perram said, other agencies are taking action on the other operators.
MR COE: A fuel risk is a fuel risk. If one stockpile is deemed to be a fire risk and it is of a certain size surely the one next door is a similar risk. If you are going to approach it from a fire management point of view, should not they be treated in exactly the same way?
Mr Ware: I cannot speak for the Department of Land and Property Services on that matter. They are the ones taking the action.
MR COE: The reason I ask is that the Chief Minister said that they have received advice from a fire risk perspective. So with that in mind, if that is information which is informing your decision making, surely it should also inform your decision making for all the other occupants of leased land.
Mr Stanhope went on to say:
TAMS are responding in relation to how the issue in relation to that site and that operator is being dealt with and what one of the drivers for the action is. One of the drivers for that action is an inspection and report by the ACT urban fire service that they are concerned at the fire risk inherent in the level of the stockpile.
I have just taken on notice the approach that another department has taken in relation to other operators on other sites. We will be happy to answer that.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video