‘Waste’ of council money
Photo: Cade Mooney
THE council was forced to waste $30,000 in ratepayer money in passing a new law to prevent the privatisation of Toowoomba’s rubbish collection service by the State Government, a councillor said.
The new local law, which replaces fast-expiring state government legislation that dictates who can offer waste collection in an area, re-affirms the Toowoomba Regional Council as the “head of power” for the service in the region.
The State Government announced months ago it would allow chapter 5A of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2008 and section seven of the Waste Reduction and recycling Regulation 2011 to expire on June 30.
This would essentially open up the waste collection sector to privatised servicing, according to Cr Nancy Sommerfield.
“It’s just a waste of everyone’s time and money,” she said.
“The legislation has use-by dates on it, and the state government has decided not to renew it this time.
“It would open it up so that absolutely anyone would’ve been able to do rubbish collection.
“All the councils in Queensland have had to go the expense and time to develop our own local laws.”
The decision from the Palaszczuk Government received a strong rebuke from the Local Government Association of Queensland.
Cr Sommerfield, who chaired the committee lobbying against the change, was frustrated when explaining how the local law shouldn’t have been needed.
“(With) this in place, it maintains the norm for everyone to have same service,” she said.
“In actual fact, it cost all ratepayers in Queensland to put in place what was always in place.” The council will also develop a long-term waste collection strategy.