Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After years of community opposition, an energy-from-waste incinerator at Eastern Creek by Dial A Dump Industries was rejected last year by the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission and the Environmental Protection Authority—as it should have been. It's currently before the courts, but it was the right decision by the New South Wales planning commission. It was rejected because it would have had severe impacts on our community; it would have increased pollution. This was an important win for Western Sydney.

But now another company is trying the exact same thing. Cleanaway wants to build another incinerator at Horsley Park in my electorate. It will have the same problems, the same people will be affected and it's pretty much the same location. We've fought it once and we'll fight it again. This proposal is very similar to the last one; it must be opposed and it should be rejected.

One of the biggest complaints I get from the people of St Clair and Erskine Park is odour from waste disposal. St Clair and Erskine Park in Western Sydney are not Sydney's dumping ground! Some companies just don't seem to get it. We have a lot to offer Sydney but we are not Sydney's dumping ground, in my electorate or in Western Sydney more generally. Just as the original proposal was rejected because it didn't stack up by the EPA, the planning commission and the New South Wales Department of Health, this proposal, which is very similar, should meet the same fate. The people of Western Sydney can be assured that every Labor member on this side of the House will oppose this incinerator, as our state colleagues will do. The state member for Mulgoa did not oppose the previous incinerator. We will oppose this one.