Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very, very, very pleased to rise today to announce some good news for the people of Ipswich, where my office is located, in Queensland, and that is that Cleanaway, an ASX listed company, has today advised that after careful consideration it is not appealing the decision of the Planning and Environment Court in Queensland to refuse Cleanaway's appeal against Ipswich City Council's refusal of an expansion application of the New Chum landfill site. Senators may remember that I have spoken in this place previously about the New Chum landfill site and the devastating impact it has had on residents in Ipswich. There have been thousands and thousands of odour complaints from those residents. At the same time those odour complaints were made, executives of Cleanaway received 100 per cent of their bonuses attributable to environmental performance.

Cleanaway was also proceeding with an application to appeal Ipswich City Council's rejection of their application to expand their site. I spoke in this place in June in relation to the outcome of that court decision, and I called upon the directors of Cleanaway to read that court decision and what it said about environmental management risk and also risk to community amenity. I'm very, very pleased that the board of Cleanaway has chosen not to appeal that decision to the next level of the courts. I note that it will now be up to the regulators and people such as myself, elected representatives in this place, to carefully watch the next steps Cleanaway undertake with respect to this site. I will be watching very, very carefully to make sure that this site is managed appropriately and the residents of Ipswich do not have to suffer what they went through last year.