Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

The question, and the quality of the question, reflect the Labor Party’s deep and well-understandable embarrassment in relation to the brickworks issue at the Perth Airport. It was revealed by the environmental assessment of the airport site that the Western Australian state government’s monitoring regime and approvals processes for brickworks in the metropolitan area, and particularly within the Swan Valley airshed, showed that there was no effective monitoring of the air in that area and that the Western Australian state Labor government had approved what was probably the biggest ever expansion of brickworks in that area with absolutely no public consultation, no environmental process and no notification of the public. We understand why the Labor Party are deeply embarrassed about approvals processes at the Perth Airport.

The approvals processes at the Perth Airport under the Commonwealth’s law surpass in all respects the approvals processes and environmental standards that apply outside the airport land under the auspices of the state Labor government. Their approvals processes are lax, if not non-existent. We stand by the approval processes at the airport.