Thursday, 15 August 2024

Northern Metropolitan Region

Adem SOMYUREK (Northern Metropolitan) (12:45): (1031) My constituency question is directed to the very popular and hardworking Minister for Environment Steve Dimopoulos about the concerns of my local residents about the proposal to construct a waste processing facility in Wollert. The proposed facility is projected to process more than 380,000 tonnes of waste material which otherwise would be sent to landfill. My office has been approached – inundated, I should say – by residents cynical about the project, referring to it as an incinerator and pointing out that such a facility would not be built in Toorak and Brighton. I think it is a matter of fact that it will not be. Residents claim that they are being taken for granted by the Labor Party because they live in struggling migrant communities. I ask the Minister for Environment to take action to ensure that my constituents are appropriately and fully consulted on this particular project, because at the moment they do not think that their voices are being heard.