Regretting the spoils

SINCE 2000, the Labor Government promised it would stop the dumping of hazardous waste into tips, especially the Tullamarine and Lyndhurst tips.
After years of researching an alternative and spending some $15 million of taxpayers’ dollars towards establishing a long-term containment facility for the storage of hazardous waste, the Labor Government announced that it would not go ahead with it.
Instead, the government decided it would rely on the Lyndhurst tip for the continued dumping of this waste. Not long after this announcement, Planning Minister Justin Madden took control over making decisions for the Lyndhurst tip away from the City of Greater Dandenong.
The Lyndhurst tip is owned by the huge multi-national corporation and operated through its subsidiary. Through another subsidiary, this multi-national corporation is also a major stakeholder in the company to which the Labor Government awarded the contract for the desalination plant at Wonthaggi.
The privately owned and operated Lyndhurst tip is now the only tip in Victoria where high-level hazardous waste can be dumped, after the government closed the only other tip for this waste at Tullamarine.
There are now plans to build a treatment plant for contaminated soil at the tip. However, under planning rules, the treatment plant is prohibited at the Lyndhurst tip site. It is asked, can Minister Madden allow the multi-national corporation to have the soil treatment plant they want anyway?
Jani Breider,
Hampton Park.