Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ian Campbell, the Minister representing the Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Is the minister aware of attempts by the Western Australian government dating as far back as December 2004 to acquire Commonwealth land on the Perth Airport site to extend the Guildford cemetery to meet community needs? How is it that a decision to approve a brickworks against the express wishes of the community and the Liberal member for Hasluck can be made in a timely fashion but, after nearly two years, the government has still not given even in-principle support to dispose of land to expand an existing cemetery? Minister, is it the case that, as the land sought by the state government contains a track used by the Liberal member for O’Connor to train his horses, that has contributed to the minister’s delay in making a decision?

Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to 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.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order. My point of order relates to relevance. The minister was asked a very serious question, in his capacity as the minister representing the minister for transport, about the application to extend the cemetery. As it is a very serious question, I would ask the minister to address that, rather than have some sort of political rave about the state government. It is an important question and he ought to be drawn to answer the question.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hear your point of order, but the minister was asked about brickworks and I think he is answering that question. He has in excess of 2½ minutes to complete his answer.

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

It is absurd to ask a question about a state government applying for an activity on airport land, referring to a brickworks and then, when I answer and bring in all of those aspects, to take some spurious point of order. The question quite specifically goes to why we approved a brickworks on the site and did not approve something else. I am going directly to the issue because I am saying that if it is an application from a state government that has lax environmental standards—if they exist at all—which is prepared to say to the people of the Swan Valley, ‘We do not even want to take you into our confidence when it comes to approvals on the airport land,’ then I do not take seriously claims by the Labor Party or their comrades in the state government in relation to any other approval on that site. Any application for land at the airport will be dealt with using the very highest standards, both within the Department of Transport and Regional Services and when it comes to me and my department for advice in relation to the environmental impacts.

The environmental performance of the Labor Party in Western Australia in relation to the brickworks is an absolute disgrace. I am very glad that my department did a thorough analysis of the proposals at the airport, and I am very glad we were able to shine a very big light on the gross hypocrisy of the Australian Labor Party when it comes to air pollution in the Swan Valley airshed.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister able to explain why the need of the community to find suitable land to lay their dearly departed to rest is less important than finding a place for a major donor to the Liberal Party to build a brickworks that no-one else wants?

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

I can assure the Senate that any proposal that goes towards use of land at the Perth Airport will be dealt with using all proper processes both within the department of transport and within the department of the environment where environmental impacts are concerned. This is in absolute contrast to the state Labor Party, Senator Sterle’s comrades, who, when it comes to approvals in that area, totally ignore the views of local people and totally ignore the potential pollution of the brickworks they have approved less than a mile away from the airport, in disgraceful circumstances.