Western suburbs air quality
Melissa HORNE (Williamstown – Minister for Casino, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Roads and Road Safety) (09:45): The challenges we face in the inner west around air quality are complex and unique, but this government has put in the work to make my community a better place to live, work and raise a family – work such as the clean air strategy; truck trade-ins to get dirty, polluting trucks off our streets; a $5 million grants program to seal local roads to reduce dust pollution; getting 9000 trucks off local roads when the West Gate Tunnel opens; $250,000 to establish Patch in the Park community garden; and $5 million upgrades to Duane, Brooklyn and Rowan Avenue reserves. I want to thank Patsy Toop for her advocacy for clean air in the inner west, as well as Geoff Mitchelmore and Ruth Cronin for advocating for vital projects to improve our community.
But all of this work will be put at risk by a proposed contaminated soil treatment facility not 400 metres from family homes. The facility plans to receive 200 tonnes of soil per operational hour – and this is not a bag of garden soil that you pick up from the local Bunnings; it is street-sweeping dust and contaminated drilling waste. In today’s climate there is absolutely no social licence to continue projects of this sort in metropolitan Melbourne, and it is completely against the work this government has been doing to improve air quality in the inner west. I stand behind the residents of Brooklyn in their fight against this facility. I look forward to meeting them later tonight to be able to progress their claims.