Page 2939 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
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TAMS announced on 12 December that the works would take place between 27 November and 24 December. So they were already halfway through the period before they announced they were doing it. This brings us back to consultation and communication, a theme I have talked about throughout these estimates hearings. They announced it well after they had already started it.
The second thing I would like to point is that I was told in this briefing:
… it will cease on … 6 February … although the odour may be experienced for a few days while remaining exposed waste is covered with soil.
So apparently work ceased on 6 February. The smell was still being experienced a number of weeks afterwards; I have emails from people in Fadden and Macarthur complaining about it right through February. Justin said, “This summer the tip smells have been disgusting. It is a health issue. What compensation will be available to residents?” Dorothy said, “The suburb of Fadden has been inundated with the most disgusting putrid smell from the tip again over the past week.” Sheila said, “They have no idea. They are blaming it on the work that supposedly finished in early February but the smell has been coming from the tip for over a year now. I still believe it is because they do not cover the refuge after it is dumped each week.”
I could go on and on here. We have got Alan: “I contacted TAMS in November 2014 to discuss the odour and was told earthmoving works at the tip will be completed by the end of 2014. Since then we have had continuous odour here in Fadden, especially after periods of rain.” Lena said, “I regularly jog around Fadden. I have been distracted by the hideous smell coming from the tip.” Angela said, “It stinks on Wednesdays in Fadden.” Natalie referred to a sweet rotting smell which occurs several days a week. Julie referred to the unpleasant odour coming from Mugga Lane tip. Et cetera, et cetera. I will not go on and on.
So it went well past 6 February, and a few days was actually a few more weeks. You would have thought—I would have thought; maybe you would not have thought—that after expressing that interest in the smell coming from the tip, I might have got an update if the work had not been completed in time. However, that was not the case. I did not receive an update. I had to contact the minister’s office again and ask why there was still the smell coming from the tip, at which point I was given another explanation about why there was continuing to be a smell from the tip. That was a little unfortunate, I thought.
As late as April this year I wrote to Mr Rattenbury about my constituents’ concerns regarding the intermittent smell from the Mugga Lane Resource Management Centre. Mr Rattenbury assured me about the odour suppressant et cetera that is done at the tip. It seems to be a bit of an ongoing issue, which is very unfortunate for people in nearby suburbs.
I come back to that continuing theme of consultation and communication. I do not think it would have been very difficult for Mr Rattenbury’s office to come back to me rather than waiting for me to complain once again on behalf of my constituents. I was
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