MP: Need for action on waste

LIBERAL MP Simon Ramsay has called for the Environment Minister to take urgent action on Lara’s defunct waste processing facility.

Speaking in State Parliament on Thursday, the Western Victoria MP said he was concerned the site at C & D Recycling — which housed 350,000 cubic materials of waste — presented a major fire hazard.

Mr Ramsay asked Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, for an update on progress made by the government- appointed Resource Recovery Facilities Audit Taskforce, stating that it needed to take control of the situation immediately.

Untouched since late last year, he said the site was not only affecting the Lara community and schools but also nearby businesses subjected to rising dust from the materials.

“Unfortunately the matter seems to have reached a criti- cal point as the Australian Taxation Office is taking C & D Recycling to court on outstanding debts owed,” Mr Ramsay said.

“We do not want a repeat of the 2017 Coolaroo recycling plant fire, which took a full 20 days to extinguish and forced a number of people to evacuate and, in some cases, seek medical attention.”

C & D Recycling will front the Federal Court later this month, after the tax office initiated legal action to have the troubled firm wound up.

Company director David McAuliffe told the Addy that C & D Recycling’s liabilities extended past $1 million.

The proceedings cast further doubt on the necessary clean-up of the Broderick Rd site, which has been estimated at costing up to $100 million.

CFA operations officer Patrick Geary has described the prospect of a fire on the land as “likely” and the consequences to be “catastrophic”.