MP calls for waste dump boss to pay
STATE MP John Eren says authorities are doing everything possible to prevent a toxic fire at Lara’s abandoned waste dump, and bring the man behind the project to account.
With the clean-up bill at the former C&D Recycling site expected to nudge $100 million, it was reported at the weekend the site’s former operator David McAuliffe was planning to move interstate after his firm was wound up last week by the tax office.
Mr Eren said he understood residents were unsettled by reports of the fire risk posed by the 350,000 cubic-metre mixed waste dump, particularly in light of the ongoing West Footscray industrial blaze that forced the evacuation of schools and child care centres last week.
He said an emergency man- agement plan was being developed by multiple government agencies, in conjunction with the City of Greater Geelong, while Mr McAuliffe’s level of responsibility was also being considered.
“As the local member I’m frustrated at how this guy seems to have conducted himself … you can’t stress the seriousness of the matter enough,” Mr Eren said.
“He should be held accountable. It’s his business, but he clearly hasn’t been running it very well.
“So, if we find there are legal processes that can be taken to make him accountable and force him to do the right thing, then I’ll be keen to make sure that happens.”
The Geelong Advertiser re- ported on Saturday that C& D Recycling had been wound up by the Australian Taxation Office, and was facing prosecution in the Magistrates’ Court by Geelong council. The firm is also under investigation by the Environment Protection Authority.
Representatives from COGG, the EPA, Work Safe, Country Fire Authority, and Victoria Police, are meeting regularly to develop an emergency management plan for the site. A government spokesman said yesterday those agencies would “take whatever action is necessary to protect the community from harm”.
COGG Windermere councillor Anthony Aitken said it was too early to say how the cost of cleaning up the site would be covered.
He said council and some of those other agencies had been trying for years to highlight the neglect of the site by C&D Recycling but were repeatedly undermined by rulings at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Cr Aitken also said tribunal members who allowed the firm to keep operating despite concerns presented to them should be “named and shamed”.
“There hasn’t been any tangible evidence of recycling on that site at all since 2013,” Cr Aitken said.
“It’s really disappointing, because it’s a massive failure of the VCAT system, and the community of Lara and the council have been let down.
“What they (VCAT) did was ignore the continual evidence that was being presented to them … the operator shouldn’t have been given the leniency it was. But they (VCAT) erred on the side of giving it further opportunities to meet the regulations of its work permits.”