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Legislative Assembly
 
Latrobe Valley quarries

13 December 2017
Adjournment
RUSSELL NORTHE  (IND)

 


Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (19:08:48) — (13 820) I personally thank you, Acting Speaker Pearson, for your support this afternoon.

My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Resources, and the action I seek is for the minister to urgently meet with Latrobe Valley-based quarry owners and managers to hear firsthand the challenges these quarries are facing to keep operating into the future. Unfortunately the resources sector in the Latrobe Valley has been well and truly kicked in the guts, with coal users being taxed through the roof and Hazelwood power station subsequently closing down in a short space of time. The timber industry likewise has been slammed, with the Carter Holt Harvey sawmill in Morwell also closing down, which has led to a shortage of timber supply, impacting retailers, businesses and consumers.

In the two scenarios above we have seen little attempt to keep the doors of these businesses open, culminating in the loss of jobs, security of supply being under threat and higher costs for consumers. Now we will have the extraction material sector heading down the same path unless the government is prepared to seriously try to resolve issues plaguing this important industry — for example, in the Morwell electorate we have many quarries, including Matthews Quarries, Latrobe Valley Blue Metal and Latrobe Valley Sands, which are critical not only to the local economy but also to that of our state for the purposes of the construction of roads, bridges, hospitals, homes, rail and other infrastructure projects. However, all these quarries I have just mentioned have a somewhat limited life, and despite endeavours by the same to either acquire an unused quarry, expand an existing quarry or even establish a new quarry, this has all been severely compromised by a lack of common sense, a lack of departmental staff and a wall of impractical and onerous red and green tape.

This is in addition to the fact that the government's own department has been non-compliant in meeting statutory time frames with some applications and invariably legal issues that present themselves at VCAT. All of these factors lead to massive delays and significant costs to these businesses and the industry more broadly.

I know the Treasurer loves to spruik the building of transport infrastructure that is occurring in Victoria, and that is great. It is all good and well, but I do implore the Treasurer in his capacity as the Minister for Resources to fix the problems that are occurring in the quarry industry, otherwise we will without a doubt see a loss of jobs. We will see higher costs for consumers, and we will see material, in a short space of time, having to be imported from interstate. And what a joke that would be.

The Construction Materials Processors Association — the CMPA — recently noted:

The industry is deeply concerned that the rate of consumption of these materials is rapidly outstripping supply and future availability. Current data confirms there are insufficient new, or extended quarry reserves being made available for extraction.

Disruption to the construction industry supply chain is inevitable, unless the issue is promptly addressed by government.

That says it all. I ask the minister to urgently meet with quarry owners in the Latrobe Valley.