Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:49): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change and concerns the news yesterday that the Maddingley Brown Coal company site has received EPA approval for its bid to receive contaminated soil from the West Gate Tunnel Project. As the minister must by now know, the Maddingley Brown Coal site is completely unsuited to this project, given the proximity of housing, schools and agricultural land as well as the transport infrastructure issue. It simply could not cope with projected traffic volumes.

The action I seek from the minister surrounds the approval by the EPA. I am asking the minister to confirm whether it was based on the tunnel-boring spoil regulations introduced by her without public warning or consultation and replacing a previous licensing regime which provided far greater protection for the communities now threatened by this project. I also ask for her action and to confirm: is this the latest example of a government riding roughshod over all opposition, hell-bent on pushing through the West Gate project and caring nothing for the cost to the people of Bacchus Marsh?

Following matters incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 1 September: