The ACT election campaign has seen politicians from all parties make the right noises about not supporting large scale waste facilities in Fyshwick.
President of the Fyshwick Business Association Rob Evans said there was no more seminal test of the honesty, integrity and leadership of the incoming government than stopping the CRS and Hi Quality developments from proceeding in Fyshwick.
“I say this to Mr Barr, Mr Coe and Mr Rattenbury: you and your parties have said Fyshwick is not the right location for these large scale waste facilities and that Hume is. Whatever the makeup of the new Assembly, you must deliver on that. Anything less will be seen by the electorate as a massive betrayal and the worst kind of expedient campaign lies,” Mr Evans said.
“You are on notice: the Fyshwick Business Association will hold you to account.”
Mr Evans said the legal mechanisms to stop the massive waste facilities were already available to the incoming government.
“With respect to the CRS Ipswich Street proposal, the incoming Planning Minister need only use his powers under Section 158 of the Planning and Development Act 2007 to call in the CRS Development Application at the appropriate time and then use his power under Section 162 (c) of the Act to refuse the application.
“The same could be applied to the Hi Quality Tennant Street proposal, noting that this development is only at the Draft Environmental Impact Statement stage with a long way to go and a lot of hurdles to jump over before any DA can be lodged.
“To repeat our position, we support innovative waste management and resource recovery solutions to manage Canberra’s waste, but they should be located in Hume, not Fyshwick, especially large scale proposals whose traffic will impact negatively on all the other businesses in Fyshwick,” Mr Evans said.
“We expect the incoming government to walk their talk, and we look forward to commencing discussions around a sensible Master Plan for Fyshwick that will rule out any future proposals for massive waste facilities here.”
Read statements by ACT Labor, the Canberra Liberals and the ACT Greens on the proposed massive waste facilities for Fyshwick.
Listen to Andrew Barr and Alistair Coe respond to questions on ABC Radio Canberra about the proposed massive waste facilities.